Who decided you were so great?!

We all read (have read) beauty mags where the experts claim that these certain products are the best they've ever used..I know you're all thinking that I've done a post like this before and you'd be right..I have, but this post is more general than that one.

How did these certain products become the bees knees? Were they just chosen at random or were they actually tested out properly?

I don't know which of these it is, but these products have never provided me with knockout results.

The thing that annoys me is that people read beauty mags, think the products are as great as they're being made out to be, go out, spend money and realise the product is crappy.  It's happened to me in the past and I'm sure it's happened to you.

Certain products from certain brands are picked, these products are usually pretty shit.  I don't know about you, but if I buy a mascara from one brand and it's crap, I'm not likely to buy another mascara from that brand..

I asked my fellow Twitterers to tell me about products which had been given this treatment but were actually crap and they came up with the following:

• Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream: I've used this myself as well and found it did nothing.  Quite a lot of people at work have also used it and found that it didn't really deliver any results.  I don't quite know how a cream can make you look like you've had 8 hours of sleep..
• Clarins Flash Beauty Balm: This is another cream which is touted as a wonder cream for your skin. Firstly, it smells like grandmothers.  Secondly, it does nothing but dry your skin out.  I had really dry skin recently and decided that this might help, it didn't.  I've never heard of a moisturiser making your skin even drier but this managed that.  You're meant to apply it under foundation but I wouldn't, your foundation would flake off.
• MAC MSF: This is not hyped by magazines but it gets endless love from most MAC addicts.  I take many issues with this, firstly, why can't you call a powder, a powder? I thought it was an eyeshadow when I first saw it.  I was pretty surprised that you could use them as powders for your face.
• YSL Touche Eclat: See here.  Mine has started to stink so I'm very close to chucking it away.
• L'oreal Elnett hairspray: This is horrible, it was sticky and I couldn't brush my hair after using it at all.  Pantene do a much better hairspray.  I wasn't the only person who felt this way!
• No7 Protect and Perfect serum: My mum made me buy this for her and it did nothing for her skin, I tried it and it did nothing for me either, apart from make me feel like I was wearing a mask.
• Clinique 3 step: I have a massive problem with this.  When I first got this, I loved it.  The face wash left my skin dry enough for a toner and the toner left my skin dry enough for a moisturiser.  I bought a full sized moisturiser and got a travel sized version of the liquid soap and toner (liquid soap aka face wash).  I came towards the end of using the moisturiser (the toner and soap had finished) and realised that it contained no SPF.  Now for a company who say that skincare is their speciality, you'd think they would have SPF in everything.  Anyway, I finished the moisturiser and realised that it didn't sink into my skin and that it just formed a coating on my face.  I went back to the Clinique counter wanting to just buy the soap and the lady was adamant that you NEEDED to buy all three together to make it work, despite me telling her that I wanted a moisturiser with SPF.  Her answer shocked me, she came out with "well yeah, you need to use the three step then another moisturiser on top which has SPF in it".  I' ve got combo skin, I'm not going to be using two moisturisers!  I've used and smelt the toner since then and I can't believe I used something so strong on my skin.  I would never recommend it to anyone!
• Maybelline's Great Lash mascara: Touted as being the best budget mascara out there when frankly, it isn't.  I'm not the only one unimpressed by the results from this one.  The annoying thing is, Maybelline have other mascaras which work far better than the Great Lash but someone will read a "review" on it in a mag and go out and buy it.  The Colossal is one of my HG budget mascaras but it seldom gets a mention in mags as the Great Lash is seen as being the be all and end all.

This isn't to say that I'm rubbishing the brands mentioned above, I'm asking why certain products have been chosen as being the standout ones when the brands have far better items to offer.

To those of you who weren't on Twitter to hear my call, which "cult" products do you find to be totally rubbish? To those of you who were, why do you think these have been hyped up so much?

Project Grow Your Own: A while since week 4

Well, it's been a while since I last showed off how my nails were growing on here.

I've had my Jessica Nails manicure (which was gor diddly orgeous) and I've applied polish a few times myself (both with favourable and non favourable results).

The one thing I've been doing consistently with my nails is applying this:

I'm more than happy with most of them, apart from one that broke because it was damaged and the two that snapped themselves because I kept nibbling them :( In my defence, they only broke this week.

I've also got a problem, can any of you nail-y gals help me out? Scroll down and you will see it, it's nothing gross!

Review: Korres Zea Mays Blusher (Shade 18 Peach)

Blusher.  This has always been something which I've struggled to get right.  I never really wore blusher until about two years ago when I got a sample of a YSL one..one which is still going strong now.  I was never too adventurous with it because I didn't want to look silly but Yinka (once again!) is a great enabler.  She has practically every blusher ever made by NARS and she's nice enough to blend her swatches so you can see how they look applied.  I'm getting a lot more adventurous (and less clown like) thanks to her.

First, the packaging:

 Ingredients:

Blusher:

Swatches:

When looking at swatches online, I usually assume that the swatch shows the colour of the product in the pan and not how it looks when you apply it.  The swatches on the Korres site are more representative of the colour once it has been applied and blended.  I wanted a peachy shade and was a bit disheartened when the product looked dusky pink in the pan.  However, once it has been applied, it is actually a nice peachy shade.

What do Korres say?
"Velvety blush with Corn starch powder particles, for a luminous effect and a smooth finish."

What did I think?
Even a rudimentary swatch will tell you that it's soft.  It's one of the softest blushers I've ever used. I loved this, it's glittery but not overly so.  Blending was a charm as well, no chalkiness.  I have to agree with all the claims that Korres make, it really is really soft and it does perk your skin up when you wear it.

I also found that it worked very well as a contour.  I just dashed it on as a blusher but quite a few people asked me if I'd lost a bit of weight and even the Mr said that I looked different.  I took a photo of my face and realised that my face did look more angular when I was wearing the blusher.

Purchase?
Yes indeedy.  Application was easy, the amount of glitter was perfect and the added bonus of contour mean that I'd buy this.

You can buy this blusher from here.

I thought the brand was called Rimmel LONDON?

I was on the Rimmel website last night having a nose to see what shades they did in eyeshadows and I came across this:

I'd never seen this in the shops before and I was wondering why..then I realised that I was on the US Rimmel website.  In my defence, the website is the same but you just choose which country you want to view and it shows you products that are available in that specific country.

I decided to have a nose around the rest of the website and I found these items (that once again, I have NEVER seen in the UK).

 I don't understand this at all, am I being naive? The brand is called Rimmel London and yet they have a wealth of products which aren't sold in the UK but are readily available in America.

I thought that maybe these were new products that we would be getting in due time but when I checked the "new products" section of the US Rimmel site, they were advertising the Max Volume Flash mascara which is something we've had here for quite some time.

Would you lot try these products if they were released on the UK market? Or, have they been released and I've just not seen them? 

Is that Cleveland Brown? I never knew he was Indian...or female..

There's one person who read the title to this post and already knows what it's all about..

For those of you who aren't my merkin partners in crime, read on...

I was on the way home the other day and I decided to go and check out the new 99p shop which had opened where Woollies used to be.

I remembered that Karleigh had posted about an Olay moisturiser that she loved and I saw it and picked it up.  I also got an Olay pore refining mousse and some nose pore strips.

I think that nose pore strips are becoming my thing..which is pretty sad..

The strips remind me of this guy:

This is why:

Pardon the bumpy surface, I'm still suffering from the mask incident and I'm not too sure what my tongue thinks it's playing at, either.

I have to say that the strip is smaller than most conventional strips.  When you put it on, it doesn't really cover much of your face, which I think is good..and you can properly stick it down without getting sticky fingers.

You need to leave it on for about 15 minutes and then you just take it off.

I think the charcoal is what worked best because it really cleaned my nose and I'd put them on par with my Superdrug strips.

The Swatch Files: L'oreal Paris Star Secrets Kit Penélope Cruz

I use this one a lot, it's my day to night palette, I whack the shadows on in the morning and if I'm going out I whack the blush and lipstick on.

I've labelled the eyeshadows incorrectly, in the palette 1 is the colour at the bottom and 3 is the colour at the top.