Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint: Beach 03

Liz Earle's Skin Tint is a product that many a woman had been waiting for.  It's been three and a bit years in the making which is impressive as it's clear they take their time when introducing a new product.

The strategic colour choice of the packaging is not lost on me.  Skincare tends to come in lighter coloured packaging whereas makeup items come in darker tones.  I've very rarely seen foundation in a white tube.

The product is available in three different shades:

• Bare: This is the lightest shade out there and the site says it is best for alabaster complexions
• Beige: This is the medium shade and the site suggests that this works best on the majority of Caucasian skintones
• Beach: This is the darkest shade and the one that I have. 

I have to give major credit to Liz Earle for making a skin tint that is actually usable by Indian women.  I've been trying to find a decent tinted moisturiser for my skin for ages and this is the closest in colour to my skin that I found.  It doesn't help that the lighter skinned Indian women at work are always going on about brilliant tints they've found..tints that are far too light for me.

As my photo of the "neat" swatch shows, there is a fair amount of pigment in this so you don't need much to tint your skin.

Unfortunately, the Sheer Skin Tint makes my skin look orange.  I've tried applying it with a stipple brush, a foundation brush, my fingers, Simon's fingers and with a sponge and it still gives me the same result.  Also, my skin is combination and this has a bit too much slip for my skin type and it makes me look really oily. 

I gave it to my mum and it matched in a lot better with her skin.  It's odd because I would have thought that shade 02 would be better for her but shade 03 works very well and doesn't make her look orange at all..Also, my mum's skin type is normal and this makes her look really dewy.  She's been photographed a few times wearing it and it makes her look younger than she is and it's the only new product she's been using so I can't see it being anything else.

She's been using it every single day for the past three weeks and she reports that there is still a lot of it left.  She uses two tiny blobs per day and that gives her a decent amount of coverage.

It swatches orange on my hand but this photo doesn't really make it clear, I tried and failed to get a photo showing how it actually looked on my hand.  If you look at the top right hand side of my er, hand, you can see the difference in my skintone and the colour of this skin tint.

I swatched it again with the flash on and here you can see the difference.  I suppose I could make it work as a highlighter/blusher but ain't hindsight a bitch? The product is now firmly ensconsed in my mother's clutches.

It retails for £21.00 and you can get it directly from the Liz Earle site.  If you don't want to buy blind, you can buy a sample pack of all three shades  I tried to look for it in the Oxford Street John Lewis but they didn't have it there..I'm sure I checked after it was released and I still didn't see it. 

Liz Earle win twice at the CEW Awards..and a little giveaway!

The CEW (Cosmetic Executive Women..I've always wondered what that stood for) Awards were held recently and Liz Earle came away clutching two well deserved awards. After only 16 years in the business (which is quite new considering how long other brands have been around), they were awarded the Best British Brand Award.

They also picked up the Best New Haircare/Styling Product Award for their Botanical Shine Shampoo which is still in its first year..mighty impressive considering how some brands still can't master the basics of shampoo and they've been in the game for years.

Want to see the rest of the winners? Click here and all will be revealed.

To celebrate their success, Liz Earle have put together a brand spanking new limited edition kit.  Named the Best British Brand Collection, it contains a 50ml bottle of Cleanse and Polish (with muslin cloth), a 50ml bottle of Instant Boost Skin Tonic, a 15ml tube of Skin Repair (for normal/combo skin), a 2ml bottle of Superskin Concentrate and a 50ml tube of Superskin Body Cream.

The set retails for £30 (so you save £7.55) and is available from May 24th until 5th June 2011. 

Now for the fun bit!  I have one of these limited edition sets to give away.. To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is..

• Be a public follower of this blog via Google Friend Connect (I'll check!)
• For one entry: leave a comment saying "enter me" along with your email address
• For three entries: blog about this giveaway and leave the link to the post in at the end of your comment
• For five entries: put a link in your sidebar about the giveaway and let me know you've done this in the comment
• For folks on Twitter: follow me and tweet "RT @rhamnousia84: Follow & RT to win Liz Earle Best British Brand Collection. #dgdmBBBC Info: http://bit.ly/lkUnUJ "
• Changing the tweet will invalidate your entry
• You can only enter once by either medium, i.e. either by leaving a comment or tweeting.  If you comment and tweet, I'll only count it as one entry

Get entering!  The giveaway will end on 10th June 2011.

 P.s, I did indeed nick the tweeting bit from Cosmetic Candy but it's alright, I'm repaying her in compliments.

A tale of 12 moisturisers..

I jumped onto the bandwagon of daily body moisturising back in 2005 when I had finished my law degree and was working the summer before doing my LPC..a bandwagon which I quickly disembarked when I realised just how heavy the workload of the LPC was.

But, I hear you say, that was nearly 6 years ago, why are you still packing heat?  Well, I was moisturising during the interim, albeit sporadically.  I also kept buying more and more in the hope that I'd once again have the time to moisturise everyday because, you know, getting the LPC out of the way was the hard part, not what came after it *ahem*. 

I've reviewed the Aveeno ones in detail here but pace yourselves for a speed review of the rest.

Olay Body Quench Mousse:  If you use too much, you will feel sticky and greasy for ages.  I find the best way to use this is to squash it into your skin and then slide your hand down to let it soak in.  This makes your hands sticky and this will transfer onto the canister.  On the plus side, the bottle lasts an age.  It is also very cheap.  It cost me £1 from the Pound Shop and it is a permanent fixture as I have always seen it there.  They have another variant for people who have normal skin.  If you moisturise after shaving/waxing, don't use this as it stings like a motherfudger.  

Would I buy it again? No.  It doesn't give my skin enough moisture and takes ages to dry properly.

Liz Earle's Cleanse and Polish: is it worth the hype?

This is another one of those products that beauty editors would swear blind deserved its cult status.  But does it? Does it really? *looks mean*

This is one of my wordier posts so make sure you click under the jump to read it all, wouldn't want you missing out on one of my gems of knowledge now, would I?

I have had this since about last September (ish) and it has been used thoroughly..I'm sure I had a post about this in draft form already but I couldn't find it anywhere..

Anyway, do I think it is worthy of the hype that surrounds it?

Read on and you'll find out!

From Russia with love

I have always wanted to go to Russia, I've seen it on countless TV programmes but I truly fell in love with it when I saw it on one of Anthony Bourdain's shows.  It was the furry hats and the thick snow that drew me in.

I'm not ashamed to say that I let out a squeal of delight when I was told I'd be going.  I got an email the other day from someone who was going on holiday to Moscow and they asked which products helped me keep my skin in decent condition whilst I was there.

Here's what I took..

1. Aveeno Skin Moisturising Lotion.  I have reviewed this before (click here).  My skin is drier than the Sahara as it is so I was applying this like it was going out of fashion in Moscow.  It kept my properly hydrated and for that I am very grateful.
2. Purity Organic Skincare Facial Moisturiser.  I am really loving this brand, I raved about their cleansing makeup remover and I have just as much love for this face cream.  It manages to hydrate my skin (which was going through a horrible dry, flaky patch before I started using this) without making me greasy.  The only issue I first had with it is that it feels a bit too solid and you have to work it into your hands and then into your skin but I have found that the massaging part helps really sink the cream in.  I used more of this in Moscow than I would in England and it did a brilliant job of keeping me moisturised without turning me greasy which is no mean feat.
3. Jessica Nails Nourish Cuticle Formula.  I have reviewed this before and of all the cuticle smooth makers (we're hot on technical terms around these parts) this is the best one I have ever used.  I was using this every morning and every night whilst in Moscow.  It also helped keep the finger tips moisturised and it healed up a cut I had on my thumb in record speed.  This is seen as a product you think you don't really need but once you start using it, you do wonder why you didn't start earlier.
4. Carmex Lip Balm.  I love this.  I've mentioned this before.  I forgot to use it on the first day and my lips were crying out for it come the evening.  I applied copious amounts of this and it never failed to work.
5. Aveeno Hand Cream.  You will see that I took two hand creams out with me, this is because I rely too much on it.  This moisturises my hands like no other so it was the first thing I put in my skincare bag.
6. Liz Earle Superskin Concentrate.  I love this for many reasons.  Firstly, it works.  It looks like a mixture between oil and water (ha!) and I find it is a very indulgent product.  This is the kind of product that I can imagine someone with a dressing table having.  The kind of person who has time to sit down at the end of a day/start of a day and look into a massive mirror whilst savouring the products they are using.  I do not have time for this..and even if I did..I don't have a dressing table (boo!) The directions say to warm it up in your hands but I find it warms itself up once it touches skin.  In England, I just used on my face and was done with it but in Moscow I decided to rub it on the decolletage because touching that part of your body is quite comforting when you're freezing *ahem*.  It doesn't leave behind a greasy film and just gets to work overnight.  My skin always looks better in the morning for having used it.  I can see it lasting me ages as one pump is all I need (double entendre FTW).
7. Anatomicals Help the Paw.  I love love love using this whilst in London as it gives me the perfect amount of moisture. My hands also really dry out when I'm on the aeroplane and this cream is the perfect consistency to moisturise but also not leave my hands so greasy that I can't hold a glass/fork/knife.

Now, about Russia.  I still love it.  If you've seen it on TV and it looks magical..just wait til you get there.  I went to Moscow and I have fallen in love with it.  I went to Prague earlier this year and announced that it had stolen my heart..it is now my bit on the side, Moscow is my love.  Me being the idiot I am wanted to know how cold -25 °C actually was so I decided to go out in the dead of night.  It was freezing..well, about 25 degrees MORE than freezing.  We did the old "take out a glass of water and see how quickly it freezes" experiment.  It was about 2 seconds before we saw little icy bits forming.

Review: Liz Earle Instant Boost Skin Tonic

You don't know happy I was to hear the words "skin tonic" be bandied about.

I was more than in love with my Boots Original Beauty Skin Tonic before it was cruelly snatched away from me by the devil that is discontinued products.

So, here I was, holding this beautifully wrapped Liz Earle Instant Boost Skin Tonic hoping that it would work just as well as my other skin tonic..

What do Liz Earle say?
"This heavenly scented, non-drying floral tonic revitalises, soothes and brightens. Gentle and alcohol-free it also adds a fine layer of moisture. With conditioning natural source vitamin E, hydrating organic aloe vera and rose-scented geranium."

What do I say?
It's nice..but I don't think it is as good as my HG skin tonic.  This does not mean that it doesn't work.  The Liz Earle one dries very quickly and leaves your skin feeling lovely.  You don't need to moisturise after using it if you use it generously.  I do this and leave my skin alone.  When I'm tired and don't use it properly, I make sure to use a moisturiser afterwards.

I feel that it does add moisture which is nice from a "toner".  Whether it soothes and brightens is yet to be seen.  However, I didn't really notice a brightening effect with my other skin tonic.  It smells pretty nice and works how I'd want a toner to work.

Even when I use it with a light hand, it feels a bit heavy for my skin so it might work better if you have dry or normal skin.

Repurchase? 
I don't think I will.  I'm not totally convinced by this.  I have been using it for a fair while and it hasn't wowed me in the same way that my other tonic did.  I suppose it is unfair to compare it to my other skin tonic so I will say this: it does work, it does everything it promises to but for me, it's not as good as my baby.

Want a gentle exfoliator? Liz Earle to the rescue!

I LOVE exfoliating.  I'm not quite sure why, but a part of me loves the feeling of a scrub on both my face and my body.  It's the glow of nice, smooth, clean skin that comes out underneath it which really fascinates me.

I think scrubs are quite foolproof because if one makes you too oily, you can wash your face, tone etc..as normal and if it makes your skin too dry, you can always put more moisture in.

I already have two scrubs on the go but wanted something a bit different.

Then I got this Liz Earle Gentle Face Exfoliator.

I am usually anything but gentle with my skin but with this product, you can't help but be gentle.  It's not your typical facial scrub, it has a thick, cream like consistency and the "beads" only come to force when you rub it over your face.  The "beads" are there, you feel them washing over your skin and taking dirt with them but they're not so hard that they feel like granuales.

I didn't really see a big difference with my skin after using this the first few times.  I think you have to use it for about a month or so before you see results.

My nose is my current bugbear and I'm convinced the pores could be a lot cleaner.  After using this for a fair while, I found that it did make my pores cleaner and tighter.  I could actually see that they were cleaner and they looked a lot smaller.  I'm fairly chuffed about this and think I have finally realised that a gentle scrub is what I need to sort my nose out.  I didn't have the forethought to take before and after photos but believe me, there is a marked difference and for that reason alone, I think I will buy it again.  Having said that, it has not had any adverse effect on my face at all, I just feel that I can get away with a harsher exfoliant on my face..

If you like to give your skin a good deep clean via exfoliation then this may not be what your heart desires..but then I suppose you know that anyway, don't you? Otherwise why would you buy a gentle scrub?

My mum has normal skin and she really liked it, she said her skin felt a lot softer after using it so I'm thinking it is more suited to normal skin than it is for oily skin if you're looking for a gentle all over scrub.

This retails for all different prices, a 70ml bottle will set you back £12.25, a 50ml bottle will cost you £8.75 and a 15ml tube is less than a fiver.  I quite like the fact that you can get differing sizes so you can trial products before spending a lot of money on them.  You can buy them from here.