Xbox Live hacked - protect your account

I know this isn't part of the usual London Makeup Girl blogging schedule, but on the basis that some of you may have an Xbox Live account or know someone else who has one, I'm putting this post up.

Mr London had his Xbox Live account hacked last night. He didn't fall for any phishing scams, and hadn't given out his password anywhere. The first he knew of it was when he received an email from Xbox Live (which he didn't even open) in chinese characters, saying he'd added another email to his account, and another email saying that his attempted purchase (well, not actually his attempted purchase) of 6000 MS points had failed.

Luckily, the credit card attached to his account had expired and he'd never linked his Paypal to it. He did lose 2000 MS points he had on the account though, and an internet search of this problem reveals it is anyone's guess when he might get this back - he's reported it to Xbox, who have frozen his profile pending investigation. The hack happened just before their support phone line closed for the evening, so the points have probably already been spent.

A quick google revealed that this appears to be caused by a brute force hack of the XBox Live login, which is set up in a way that allows this exploitation:

1. It gives a different error message if you enter an incorrect password as opposed to an invalid email (which tells the hackers there is an account attached to a particular email).
2. It allows unlimited attempts to login, without freezing the account (which allows brute force hacks - a computer programme entering many thousands of different passwords until the programme hits the right one). 
3. An additional email account can be added without requiring verification from the main email account on the account. 

Microsoft continues to maintain their security hasn't been compromised, despite lots of complaints about this happening to different users. If you have an account, or know someone else who has, make sure you have a strong password on it - preferably not a real word, and a combo of alpha and numeric characters. Most importantly, remove your paypal and credit card details from your account, and don't leave unused points on it.

You can also set up your account so that you need a passcode every time you go on Xbox Live, separate from the password. Hackers could probably brute force that too, but it just makes it a bit more difficult for them.

Apivita Wine Elixir Day Cream spf 15 review

The Wine Elixir range is one of Apivita's skincare ranges designed to support ageing skin. Apivita is a Greek brand that uses a high percentage of natural ingredients and avoids silicones, mineral oil, parabens, propylene glycol and phthalates.  I've bought and liked Apivita products before, so I was happy to try some other products when I was given the opportunity to be sent them for review.

This cream is too rich for my skin except in extremely cold weather, and resulted in a few clogged pores on my chin and forehead (a sure sign of a cream that's too rich for my skin) when I was using it in milder weather before Christmas. When the weather turned colder and windier over the last couple of weeks I pulled it out again and have had no clogged pores, so I'd say it's best for really cold weather or very dry skin. My skin isn't mature enough to need this on a regular basis and does better with the Apivita First Line Day Cream I bought last year. If your skin is much drier or has more ageing concerns, this would be a good day cream to try from an excellent skincare brand. Like the First Line Day Cream, the Wine Elixir Cream does have quite a perfumed smell from the essential oil blend used in it.

Ingredients:

Available directly from the Greek website: www.apivita.com. I ordered from here last year and received my order quickly without any problems.

Disclosure: product provided without charge for review.

Monica Vinader Nugget rings

sorry, hands could REALLY have used moisturising before photographing

This Monica Vinader stacking ring combo (a Large Nugget Ring in smoky quartz and a Small Nugget Ring in moonstone) is brought to you by the very finest Girls Shopping Maths Logic. I bought the Large Nugget ring in the Monica Vinader sale, where I got it for 50% off. You all know where this is going, right? With the money I saved I bought the Small Nugget ring.

I wanted to give a quick head's up that this particular ring does seem to come up quite generously on the sizes. I ordered M - my ring finger is an L, and my middle finger is generally about an M to N, and the size M in the Nugget ring (both sizes, but more on the Large one) feels more like an N1/2 to me. I think it is because the gem is raised from the ring in an open setting to allow stacking more easily, which results in a bit more 'give' in the ring - see the picture below. I ordered the Large Nugget online and took it into the Monica Vinader shop on South Molton Street to check I hadn't accidentally been sent a size P (I hadn't). I could easily wear the size K on my ring finger, so it is worth bearing this in mind when ordering this particular style online, or ideally trying them for size in a shop first.

side view 

The Large Nugget is very large, and I think the Small Nugget is probably more practical; the Small Nugget can also be stacked with the Luna (round) and Candy (oval) rings. The Smoky Quartz Nugget rings are sold out in the sale, but there are some orange-red Carnelian Nugget rings still available at half price.

Tom Ford Nail Lacquer in Viper

Let's talk about the price of these first - this nail polish costs £25. It's £4 more expensive than the By Terry Nail Laque Terrybly (dreadful, dreadful name) and it will cost you £7.50 more than a nail varnish from Chanel. But... I love a lot of the Tom Ford cosmetics, so I wanted one of the nail polishes. I can't say that it's a must-buy-worth-£25-your-life-won't-be-complete-if-you-don't-have-this purchase for everyone, but Mr Ford has, in my opinion, made a bloody good nail polish and I'm glad I bought it.

The picture below best shows the colour and finish you'll see most often with this nailpolish. A glossy, dark, dark violet, the finish is somewhere between a jelly and a cream. The finish reminds me a lot of NARS Zulu, although Viper is less streaky - I only needed two coats of Viper, and NARS Zulu is a three coater. 

The picture below was taken in strong sunlight to show the undertone better - Viper is a clear violet with no brown tones. I've become fonder of the violet tones recently (lips, nails, hair) - I've discovered they are quite flattering against my green-olive skin tone.

Application was also very good - the square lid lifts off and there is a round brush handle underneath it. The neck of the bottle is quite long which means that excess polish can be wiped off the brush without getting on the outside of the neck. The brush itself is well-designed; slightly narrower than the OPI pro, beautifully cut to give a clean finish.

Beauty Spotlight weekly round up 21 January

This week the Beauty Spotlight Team previews Spring makeup collections, finds some must-have drugstore treasures, keeps your hair looking great and one member channels her inner Supermodel for a day!

Marcia from Beauty Info Zone continued her search for L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadows and found more to love.

Little cat paw print embossed lipsticks, now what could be more fun… Visionary Beauty shares the lipsticks from the cat themed Paul & Joe collection for Spring.

At Everyday Beauty, Zuzu's Petals dishes about beauty and the aging process.

Modesty Brown reviews the L'Oreal Super Liner in Black Amethyst. It might be designed for hazel eyes but this pretty liner is sure to appeal to purple fans no matter what their eye colour.

Guarantee yourself a good hair day! Pammy Blogs Beauty loves No 4 High Performance Hair Care's Lumiere d'hiver Reconstructing Masque.

Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed starts swatching the OPI Holland collection - wooden shoe like to see it?

Then check it out! Over at Pretty in Dayton, it's Story Time! A Fairy Tail come true - Styrch makes a surprising transition from "customer" to "model" for Sittella, by Althea Harper

Paula, from Older Girl Beauty, shows us one of her foreign beauty faves - this time it's Hissyfit Body Double Sunscreen Lotion from Australia.

Perilously Pale finally satisfied her craving for Fyrinnae and shares with us her first set of swatches of the incredible eyeshadows!

At Lipstick Musings, Shannon's falling in love with Laura Mercier all over again, all because of Shimmerplum Sequin Eye Color.

Prime Beauty fell hard for the Burberry Spring/Summer Collection, a beautiful assortment of neutral and brights perfect for the over 40 woman!

A stain that's glossy? Isn't that an oxymoron? Londonmakeupgirl sees if YSL has managed to make it a reality, when she buys a YSL Glossy Stain.

Viseart Basic Eyeshadow Palette

Matte. Neutral. Eyeshadow. Heaven. This a palette of 12 neutral mattes from bone to black and all the neutrals you could wish for in between.

I bought this because Olivia told me I really, really needed it. (Click on the link for pictures of swatches of the colours on her skin, as well as the reasons why you might need it too.)

The formula looks really basic, but these just work so well. They don't feel dry, they don't look chalky, they blend well and you can build the colours up (even the black and the dark brown) without patchiness. The pressed-ness of the shadows is also perfect - it's easy to pick up colour but not so soft that you get fallout in the pan or on the face/eye.

The two left hand shades in the top row make good neutral blushes for me too. The other good thing about these is that the browns don't oxidise or turn orange on my skin (the two middle shades in middle row are more red-based, so they do apply as warm colours, but the neutral and grey-browns stay neutral and cool.)

If you are looking for a complete spectrum of basic matte shades, this palette would be extremely hard to beat. I bought mine from www.theneatkit.com and it cost me £46 (I'm not a MakeUp Artist, so don't qualify for the MUA discount shown on the catalogue.) The only other possible UK stockist is www.preciousaboutmakeup.com who have a Viseart Basic Eyeshadow palette on sale for £60, but they don't show a picture and describe it as shimmer, so I'd shoot them an email or ring before buying sight unseen.

YSL Glossy Stain 01 Violet Edition

There has been a bit of buzz about the new YSL Glossy Stains on the internet. BritishBeautyBlogger wrote about them in November, the Beaut.ie girls are a little bit keen on them and Kate at Drivel about Frivol (love this blog name) has swatches of all the shades. These are a lipstick/gloss/stain hybrid and the idea is that they wear as long as a stain while giving a glossy finish. At the moment they are only available from Selfridges and on the www.yslbeauty.co.uk website in the UK, although they'll be launched at counter nationwide in February.

The finish of the YSL Glossy Stains reminds me of the Lip Ink system (I reviewed that here: Lip Ink Fire Red) except that the clever folks at YSL have got the stain and the glossy top coat all combined in one tube.

One coat gives an even stain with glossiness that lasts a good couple of hours. The stain remains after the glossiness has faded, although it looks less vivid without the sheen of the gloss, and it has faded considerably after three hours of wear (see my pictures below.) Reapplying to refresh the glossiness builds up colour, which is fine if you want to build up colour but not so good if you just want to refresh the glossiness although you could just use a clear gloss to do that.

Adding a second coat intensifies the colour density and glossiness, although to me it feels uncomfortably gloopy and I'm happier at one coat (I almost never wear lipglosses because I can't stand the sticky feel of them though, so it's worth taking that into account.) These are sticker than Chanel Rouge Allure Laques or Beaute Weightless Lip Cremes, but they are a different and glossier finish, and do tend to wear a little better in my opinion.

The delivery system is quite alcohol based (also like the Lip Ink) and you can feel the alcohol when you first apply it. The new, whizzy, wand applicator thing is actually quite good, although I do find it can deposit too much colour at the edges of my lip, which I need to blend down with a fingertip or separate lipgloss. Glossy Stains have the same perfumed rose scent of the Rouge Pur Couture lipsticks.

I bought 01 Violet Edition, which is a plum shade that's very slightly to the violet rather than brown side of plum to my eye. There are 20 colours in total, from nude to red and most shades you'd expect to find in a lipstick range.

Picture with one coat applied:

Second coat applied. It's not much deeper or darker, but it is more intense and glossier (and stickier.) 

One coat after 3 hours, a cup of tea and breakfast (complete with stray hair.) There is still colour, but the glossiness is gone and the colour faded. If you eat or drink, don't expect it to look like picture one for more than an hour or two. It hasn't dried out my lips though, and it has left a stain (my lips fade into my skintone when bare.) 

Picture in context of the rest of my face (with one coat freshly applied.) 

I do like the look and feel of (one coat) of the Glossy Stain, and I love the colour I bought. I will wait for a couple of weeks before buying others to check that the formula doesn't dry out my lips, but I'm quite hopeful as it hasn't so far with 5 hours of wear and one reapplication (I usually know almost straight away if a lipstick is going to bother my lips) and Kate at Drivel about Frivol has reported they don't dry her lips out with more continuous wear (she also has sensitive, dry, reactive lips.)

Beauty Spotlight Mystery Makeup Bag

We're starting off the Beauty Spotlight Mystery Makeup Bag posts again this year with Periously Pale. Click on the bag to find out what our porcelain skinned redheaded friend has in her bag...

MAC Powerpoint Pencil in Buried Treasure

MAC can annoy me no end with the constant whirl of limited edition collections, but they do have some great products hidden in the core range. This eye pencil is one of them. Buried Treasure is a black/brown with subtle gold shimmer - it's softer than a straight black but a little more interesting and brightening than a plain brown eyeliner. The Powerpoint formula does wear better than most pencil eyeliner formulas but if you want to smudge it you need to work quickly; after a minute or two it sets and won't move without eye makeup remover.

Close up of colour:

Swatch:

The formula reminds me of the GOSH Velvet Touch pencils, although there isn't a very similar colour in that range (the closest is Golden Moss, which is lighter and greener than Buried Treasure).

The MAC Powerpoint Pencils are £13 each.

Book review: Kresley Cole Lothaire

One of my very guilty pleasures is a genre of books that Mr London refers to as 'para-porn' (AKA Twilight with rutting.)

Kresley Cole is one of my favourite paranormal romance writers. Her Immortals After Dark series is unlikely to win prizes for literature, but it's entertaining and hot, and the female characters aren't the usual 'fragile flowers who must be protected' who annoy me no end.

Lothaire is the 10th full length novel in the series, and probably the best yet. Lothaire the vampire (also known as the Enemy of Old) is a bad vampire. He is an outcast who will stop at nothing to capture the two vampire thrones of his dead parents.

All vampires have a Bride; a female who will reawaken their hearts and manly parts, etc etc. Lothaire discovers to his disgust that his is a young mortal from a poor mining family in the Appalachian Mountains, but then discover that the mortal, Elizabeth, is possessed by a blood demon called Saroya (think Kali on a bad day). He plots to destroy the mortal's soul to enable Saroya, a truly fitting Bride, to take over her form and rule by his side.

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Yes, of COURSE the human Ellie is his real Bride, and obviously, he also finds a way to get rid of the demon Saroya once he realises this - otherwise the HEA would be a TEA (tragic ever after.) What I love about this book though, is that Lothaire in love is still a selfish, manipulative asshole. A hot manipulative asshole, but an asshole, nonetheless. The rutting scenes are also very hot indeed. Kresley Cole manages to make Ellie's decision to use her feminine wiles on Lothaire not only believable but logical. She also uses a pre-existing plot line from a previous book to give them their immortal HEA, and not a complete deus ex machina.

I read the Kindle version which was released on Amazon.co.uk yesterday. The Hardback isn't out until 19 January, but Amazon are selling it for £6.99 so no need to wait for the paperback.

If you like JR Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan etc, then I'd definitely recommend Kresley Cole. I didn't buy the first Immortals After Dark book (A Hunger Like No Other) for ages because the cover seemed a bit tacky (really) but once I'd read it I was hooked on the series.