NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer

NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer

There's a new concealer on the block.  And I love it.

Cheap-ass v Fancy-ass? Shiseido v Lidl in the Battle Of The Cotton Pads

The humble cotton pad / cotton round...

Today's post was written in two halves - by both myself and my friend @MontyC.  It's a review of something we all use and need; for makeup removal, for toning the face, for refreshing the eyes, for nail polish removal... the humble cotton pad.

MAC's new Mineralize Moisture SPF15 Foundation

New kid on the (MAC) block:
Mineralize Moisture SPF15 Foundation

This post was a labour of... well, just a labour really.  I started out writing up this review the same way as I usually do for foundations - trying to cover all the bases (coverage, finish, lastability, cost, skintype, application method etc) and I realised that, while I would still be doing this, I needed to add a bit of a rant to the top of the post.  So here it is:

<Rant>

So Here’s the thing.  I wanted to love this foundation.  I first saw this new foundation in action back in December and have been eagerly awaiting its release.  What this foundation tries to do – in terms of finish – is everywhere at the moment; that glowy, radiant skin look is the biggest 2013 trend going.  Aside from the fact that healthy glowy skin looks gorgeous, and apart from the fact that it’s coming into the summer and this tends to be a seasonal trend, this is a particular ongoing trend at the moment.

What I found was that it’s a blasted bugger of a thing to apply correctly.  It needed quite a lot of investigation into what would and wouldn’t work.  And when I found what worked (in terms of application), it didn’t necessarily last (in terms of wearability).  But dear God it was hard work getting there, and involved a multitude of different application methods, different finishing methods, different priming methods over a seven day period, even down to doing things one way on one side of my face, and another on the other side, to compare!  It involved a ten-minute earlier start all week to try get to the bottom of it (I’m looking forward to that extra time in bed next week :-))

Bottom line: now that I know how to make it work, how to use it, how to get the best out of it, I’m fine with it – in fact I absolutely love it.   But it’s still not a foundation for when you’re in a hurry.  It’s a needy-baby-greedy-baby foundation, to paraphrase The Big Bang Theory.

</Rant>

Anyhow, read on if you want to see how in the name of £$%@^ you can make it work…

Cosmetics a la Carte - 40th Anniversary Celebration!

Although I'm a relatively recent convert to Cosmetics à la Carte, this year they are this celebrating forty years in the business!  To mark the occasion, they are hosting a creative beauty exhibition detailing the creativity and innovation of their makeup, and the impact that cosmetics has on modern culture...

Sleek Pout Paints v OCC Lip Tars

I know this post is a little late (ok ok very late, I have been meaning to publish it for over a year now!) but how and ever, better late than never...

For anyone who doesn't know, OCC (Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics) are a cruelty-free all-vegan cosmetics store who make a bunch of different cosmetic products and tools - but their pièce de résistance are their Lip Tars.  Ostensibly a pro product, these are great for anyone who likes to play with makeup.

Sleek Makeup (a drugstore/budget makeup brand that I absolute love) have released (oh, back in 2011 I believe) their version - called Pout Paints.

Here follows my compare-and-contrast.