Paintbox Soapworks The Black Heart Sorbetto

This is the Valentine's product for anyone who has ever played A Letter To Elise on a loop. (Sorry again, parents.)

The Black Heart is all about the coffee, and I love it to bits. It's dark, dark, dark coffee with a spicy sweetness, and nothing creamy, candy or bakery about it. There's a bit of dark cocoa in there, and the patchouli and pepper notes come out more on the skin than in the tub. Mostly, it's the coffee though, and this is Monmouth Coffee, not Starbucks. (If you are ever in London and you like coffee, I really recommend trying the coffee from the Covent Garden shop.)

I've loved the previous limited edition Paintbox Soapworks blends that use coffee as an accent (Avast! and Smiling Jack) and I love it as centre stage in The Black Heart.

This is still available in the PaintBox Soapworks Etsy shop here: The Black Heart Sorbetto, but the limited edition for Valentine's is coming to a close to make way for Spring limited editions.

NARS Gaiety blush and 413 BLKR eyeshadow

Being the contrary creature I am, when I saw comparison pictures of the Spring 2012 NARS Lhasa single eyeshadow and the harder to get hold of NARS 413 BLKR eyeshadow on The Beauty Look Book, I wanted the 413 BLKR, which looked to be a more pure grey/lavender shade (next to 413 BLKR, Lhasa looks positively taupeish.)

413 BLKR is available exclusively from the New York 413 Bleecker Street NARS Flagship store, and also from NARS online. I couldn't just buy one product (got to hit that free shipping amount) so I added Gaiety blush from Spring 2012 and Madison Avenue pencil in the new Larger than Life Longwear Eyeliner.

I've never ordered from the NARS UK website before, so I was surprised when the products were actually sent from France - it took 5 working days from when I placed my order to when I received it.

Swatches. Madison Avenue is a medium grey with no shimmer, 413 BLKR is an ashy lavender grey with subtle shimmer and Gaiety is a light lavender pink with a sheen. Gaiety swatches and applies much lighter than I'd expect it to from the colour in the pan, and, unusually for NARS, I do have to pack it on for it to show up on my skin.

The pencil is a great pencil and makes a good strong line that doesn't budge, but you literally need to smudge it within 10 seconds to soften the line. After that, it's set. This doesn't suit how I typically like to wear liner (I like a softer, more diffused line), but it would be good for anyone who does like a more defined line from a pencil. This isn't going to get a lot of use from me though - I actually prefer London in the old, smudgy eyeliner formula. 

All three applied. 

Honestly, I don't think this is the best combination of colours for me and my colouring, although it might look better with a brighter lip (that's my natural lip colour in the photo.) I would bet money this look will be a thumbs down from Goya :)

This is another try today - I'm not so lousy with cold and I used my normal black pencil applied first and smudged rather than the NARS Madison Avenue. I like the combination a little better worn like this, but these still aren't the best colours for me. Sometimes I forget that I'm more Elphaba than Glinda in complexion and colouring.

The blush is actually not too bad on me, but I think I might have been better off with Lhasa rather than 413 BLKR eyeshadow. 

I haven't made any 'Why did I buy that?' mistakes in a while, so I guess I was due one. If I'd seen the eyeshadow or pencil in person, I probably would not have bought them - that's the peril of online shopping I suppose! 

Have you made (or avoided) any makeup purchase mistakes recently? 

Future Primitive Soap Spring collection out now

If you are looking for a UK based independent artisan soap and body care brand along the lines of Haus of Gloi or Paintbox Soapworks, Future Primitive Soap Co is my recommendation.

The Spring 2012 collection launched mid February, and I've bought a couple of bits from it.

Green Room is a blend of rosemary, spearmint, mandarin and ho wood essential oils. As you can imagine from the oils, it is a fresh, clean blend that does invoke the spirit of the ocean even though it doesn't contain the ozone/seaweed notes that marine blends typically do. It smells clean and cool, like breathing in at the seaside on a clear spring morning. This is quite an invigorating essential oil blend though, and not one I'd personally recommend to a very sensitive skin.

Green Room is fantastic in the Bubbling Sugar Scrub, giving a fresh, wake-up scent as you scrub with it. I think the scrub has been reformulated since I bought it last Autumn, as the sugar particles are smaller and gentler on the skin.

The Body Whip doesn't have quite enough slip for my taste and I do prefer the application of creams from Haus of Gloi and Paintbox Soapworks, but it sinks in and moisturises well. Green Room works well in the Body Whip, and after the initial mint/herb notes evaporate it leaves a fresh, slightly spicy-woodsy fragrance that lingers gently on the skin.

The Shire is a floral/herbal essential oil blend. It's very feminine and pretty. I don't get a lot of the lavender in the Whipped Soap - I sniff more of the floral gardenia/ylang ylang, with added pretty greenness from the geranium. The Whipped Soap is now lighter and more whipped than the winter collections, and I prefer the new formulation. It works very well indeed as a shaving cream.

Future Primitive Soap Company products can be bought from www.futureprimitivesoap.bigcartel.com. They do ship internationally, but the big benefit of this brand is for folks in the UK who can avoid international shipping costs.

Beauty Spotlight Mystery Makeup Bag

The Mystery Makeup bag is back, and this week Lisa from Beauty Info Zone shows us what is in her bag.

Click on the bag to go to her post and find out what's inside:

Perricone MD Face Firming Activator Review

In the interests of up front full disclosure, I will say before I begin this review that I was sent this product and I didn't buy it. This is an expensive product at £99 for 59ml. I would (and have) spent this much on skincare items myself in the past.

I will also say that if you are younger than mid-thirties and you have no visible signs of ageing (and I don't mean little crinkles when you smile, laugh or frown that disappear when you stop) then you absolutely do not need this product and you'd be wasting your money to buy it. Spend money on a good moisturiser with sunscreen and a decent cleanser, but don't drop huge amounts of cash on serums you don't need yet.

I needed to find the right moisturiser to wear over this. I tried it at first with my Sarah Chapman Skinesis Dynamic Defence and that wasn't a good combination - I ended up with irritated skin, characterised by random dryness and little red bumps on my chin and forehead; a sure sign the skincare I'm using isn't agreeing with my face. I suspect that the actives in the Sarah Chapman and those in the Perricone were just too much for my skin in combination, because as soon as I started using Trilogy Vital Moisturising Cream SPF 15 my skin calmed back down and I've had no irritation since. You must wear a sunscreen over this serum, as the glycolic acid in the formula can make the skin more sensitive to sunlight.

Perricone MD Face Firming Activator is a light fluid/cream texture that sinks quickly into the skin. There are some silicones in the formula, but quite low down on the ingredients list and it doesn't have a silicone-y feel; it sinks into the skin without leaving a residue behind. This does smell slightly fishy after application from the DMAE in it, and there's a citrus/floral fragrance added to mask it. The fish smell fades to nothing on my skin after a few minutes, but if you possibly can it's worth trying this at a counter to see if you find it tolerable before putting down the (not inconsiderable) cash for the product.

With the fish-smell issue out of the way, I think I've seen the biggest effect from this serum that I've ever seen from skincare. I bought this and used it when it first came out in the UK about a decade ago (there was a very good GWP going on in Liberty) and I wasn't massively impressed with it. My skin felt nice, but it didn't seem to do anything much; I now realise that there was nothing for it to do on my twenty-mumble skin. On my thirty-mumble skin, it's a different matter; while I'd say my skin was good for my age I've noticed a reduction in the depth of the lines from my nose to the corners of my mouth, between my eyebrows and on my forehead, particularly in the last month or so (I've been using this for nearly two months now.) I've always had pretty even skintone so it hasn't made a huge difference there, but I notice I don't look quite so tired at the end of the day, even when I feel it.

I use every other morning as a serum underneath my moisturiser (with SPF). I have not been using any other serum on the alternate days. I don't use every morning as recommended by Perricone MD as I believe that using a glycolic product everyday is overdoing it; that's my personal philosophy and it suits my reasonably fine-textured skin best. The other active ingredients are high up on the ingredients list, which means you are getting a decent amount of actives for the money.

The closest results I've seen to this product (for those for whom the fish thing is a deal-breaker) were from Skinceuticals Vitamin C AOX serum and the Nude Cellular Renewal Serum. I do think the Perricone has given the biggest results, although the Nude might be better for a very sensitive skin and the Skinceuticals provides an additional sun protection boost if you are spending time in strong sunlight.

If you'd like to try this product at a lower entry price point, I'd suggest this travel set, which has a half size of the Face Firming Activator and travel sized moisturiser (no SPF - don't use this alone over the Face Firming Activator during the day!) and toner and foaming cleanser for £58: Perricone Travel Set. I've been using the 2oz full size version for two months, every other morning only, and I am about a quarter of the way through the bottle.

Ingredients list:

Disclosure: PR sample.

Miller Harris La Fumee review

In La Fumee,  Lyn Harris has created an incense scent that isn't overly heavy, arid-dry or oily. Instead it's balanced in the just-right spectrum of warm, comforting incense with deftly blended touches of spice and wood that never overpower either the fragrance or the wearer. This is a less shouty Serge Noire with the skank dialled right down.

I bought this for Mr London for our anniversary. He loves Feuilles de Tabac, and La Fumee is its smokier sibling. It would be disingenuous of me to pretend that the thought I might occasionally borrow it myself never crossed my mind when I was making the purchase (I also bought him some cufflinks that I won't nick.)

The spices in the opening notes are quite fresh and green-smelling to my nose, which makes sense when reading the top notes listed; coriander, cardamom and cistus (no cumin-sweat note here.)  The incense heart blends into a warm woody base. I smell sandalwood and birch tar, but it's the smell of the smoke from those burning without the bitter, sticky remains.

La Fumee is a daytime-appropriate, office-friendly incense. It lingers nicely but doesn't have a massive sillage - I have to get quite close to Mr London to smell it, but at the end of the day the ghost of the fragrance still lingers on his chest as we snuggle up to go to sleep.

I bought this from the Miller Harris shop in Covent Garden, which is my favourite place to buy fragrance. The sales assistants are generous with time and samples, and are happy to discuss the various scents and make suggestions. 100ml costs £85, and 50ml is £60.

OCC Lip Tar in Trollop

I've wanted Trollop ever since I saw it on Lipglossiping. Firstly, the name makes me smile (if OCC ever do a Lip Tar called Slattern, I am all over it with my never-touch-a-duster hands.) I wanted a medium neutral/warm pink Lip Tar, and thought that the popular Memento might be too pale for me.

Swatched on my hand. A bright, watermelon pink, it's a little brighter than the shade I was originally after, although I like it a lot. If I buy any more Lip Tars, my next one will be a beige neutral (can't decide between the taupe Uber or beige Petty Beige) to dull down the ones I have.

In order to gauge the relativeness brightness and pinkness of Trollop, here's Anime (left) and Trollop (right). Anime is the brightest and pinkest lip colour I own. 

Trollop applied. It's a lovely colour and like all the OCC Lip Tars I've tried reads true to tube, even on my strange mauve lips. The Lip Tar formulation is not very forgiving of dry lips though, and I do find I need to take very good care of mine with balm before and after wearing a Lip Tar. I use the trick of lining outside my lipline with a cream/flesh pencil before applying the Lip Tar to prevent bleeding or feathering. 

The colour reminds me of the YSL Rouge Pur Couture #17 Rose Dahlia I bought the christmas before last, but without the YSL fragrance. Although it's more hassle to apply than a traditional lipstick, I prefer the OCC in this case. 

In context of the rest of my face. I'm just wearing undereye concealer, brow pencil and OCC Lip Tar in Trollop in this picture, to give the best idea of how the colour works against my skintone. I quite like it worn like this, although a lick of mascara and some rms Beauty Luminizer wouldn't hurt.

I bought this from www.cocktailcosmetics.co.uk. Have you tried the Lip Tars, and what are your favourite shades? Any thoughts on what my best neutralising shade might be would be much appreciated.

Trilogy Vital Moisturising Cream SPF 15

I needed a gentle and relatively inert moisturiser with sun protection to wear over the Perricone MD Face Firming Activator I've been using for the last couple of months, and this is the one I bought.

100% mineral sunscreens all feel a bit like rubbing cake batter on your face when you first apply them, and Trilogy Vital Moisturising Cream is no exception. For a good five to ten minutes after application my face feels slightly tacky to the touch and I couldn't apply foundation straight away (this would be rubbish under the Suqqu Frame Fix Cream Foundation).

This doesn't leave a white cast on my skin though and when it's fully absorbed my skin feels perfectly normal. I also believe that a mineral sunscreen gives the best protection if you can't reapply a sunscreen during the day (and most days, who can reapply at lunchtime?)

The texture is a thick white cream, and it has a neutral, herbal/citrus scent. I wouldn't recommend this to an oily or combination skin, but when it sinks in on my normal skin it does leave a matte finish with no oiliness through the day. It's been excellent for use over the Perricone MD Face Firming Activator; I first tried using this with my Sarah Chapman Dynamic Defence which has too many actives in it for use over the Perricone serum (my skin became quite irritated at this combination) and I didn't like the feel of the Jo Malone Vitamin E Day Creme over the Perricone either (the Jo Malone is too silicone-y for my taste.)  The Trilogy doesn't cause any reaction with the Perricone, it is silicone-free and provides good sun protection (important as the Perricone contains glycolic acid.)

If you like a moisturiser that you can apply quickly and instantly get on with the rest of your routine, this isn't the one for you. If chemical sunscreens bother your skin, or if you just prefer to avoid them, and you have normal to dry skin then this is worth a try. Very dry skins tend not to get on so well with mineral sunscreens as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are inherently slightly drying, so if you have very dry skin I'd recommend a chemical or combination spf moisturiser. If you are set on using a physical screen this is probably one of the best ones you'll find for a very dry skin, but you will need to layer an oil or oil-serum underneath on drier areas. (Trilogy pure rosehip oil would be a good choice.)

Trilogy Vital Moisturising Cream SPF 15 costs £27.50 for 50ml and I bought mine from Boots.

Ingredients:

I was pleased and slightly surprised to find three physical sunscreens in Boots that I could have bought; as well as the Trilogy I also found these two:

This Works Perfect Skin Defence SPF 30 - very light fluid texture with a tint, would be good for oilier skins and the tint wasn't too dark for my skin, although skin lighter than mine would likely find it too dark. £30 for 30ml.

Super Daylight Savings SPF 25 Moisturise - somewhere in the middle of the Trilogy and This Works in terms of texture, a more traditional fluid/moisturiser texture. £28.50 for 30ml, this is the one that I wanted to buy but the big Boots on Oxford Street near Bond Street tube doesn't stock Super so I bought the Trilogy instead. (The other Boots on Oxford Street near Oxford Street tube does stock Super.)  This is a diffusion line by Dr Perricone, based on the idea of using superfoods in skincare. It's not inexpensive, but it is a good deal less expensive than the main Perricone MD range. (The Perricone More than Moisture spf 30 is £50 for 30ml.) I intend to buy this one after I finish the Trilogy.

Beauty Spotlight Weekly round up 18 February

From beauty blunders to brushes to a cold weather face, The Beauty Spotlight Team has you covered this week!

Prime Beauty channels her glory years--the 70's, with Make For Ever's Spring Collection La Bohème.

Remember your inner gypsy? Styrch has been busy traveling for work, but she managed to review Project Runway alum Althea Harper's Fall/Winter 2012 this week - she's once again in fashion love!

There seems to be universal love for Real Techniques brushes that Pixiwoo created. Lisa from Beauty Info Zone totally agrees with that and shows you just how wonderful they are.

Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed checks out the new range of colours in the Clinique Almost Lipstick line to see if they really deserve the "your lips but better"claim!

Visionary beauty shows us her favourite cream shadow stick formula, By Terry Ombre Blackstar.

Atlanta has totally skipped winter this year, so Shannon at Lipstick Musings has decided to start focusing on summer! She's starting with her new favorite sunscreen, Elta MD UV Physical SPF 41. Come share the love!


Modesty Brown shares her first foray into OCC Lip Tars and finally gets what all the fuss is about!

Zuzu's Petals came clean about some of her biggest beauty blunders.

Come over to Everyday Beauty to see what they were, and share your mistakes!

The last couple of weeks in London have been (below) freezing! London Makeup Girl tells us what products she reaches for when the mercury goes below zero for her Cold Weather Face.

Pammy Blogs Beauty falls in love with L'Oreal's new 24 hour Infallible Eye Shadow. Has she found a new Holy Grail shadow?

I'm looking forward to...

I haven't been grabbed by new cosmetics launches for a while (I'm rarely excited by the seasonal collections from the major brands) but there are a few new things that have either just come out or are about  to that do so have me hopping with anticipation:

rms Beauty Karma cream eyeshadow - dark brown/black cream eyeshadow with silver shimmer. I've been hoping for a darker cool shade of cream eyeshadow from rms Beauty, and this sounds perfect.

RGB cosmetics HIPP foundation colours. These were launched by RGB last year, but Mise Beauty has just gotten them in. I need F1. The Autumn/Winter 2011 shades have also just arrived, and Camp, a mossy zombie green, looks very good to me.

RGB is my favourite nail polish brand. They're actually 4 free - they don't contain camphor, as well as leaving out formaldehyde, toluene and DBP. You wouldn't know it by application (the opaques are fully opaque in two coats, and the sheers apply evenly) or longevity (I can wear for 5 days without any major chipping, and I'm not kind to my fingers although my nails are very short, which helps.) The bright and unusual colours in cream formulations are exactly to my taste too (there are a few shimmers in the range, but they are mostly creams.) At £11.50 they're not ridiculously expensive either. I love the RGB website with all the shades laid out to drool over.

Ilia Beauty are launching quite a few new products, following on from the successful launch of their tinted lip conditioners last year (I've been wearing the berry stain Arabian Knights very regularly.) They are bringing out full coverage lipsticks, a lip balm and lip exfoliator, lip & cheek cream colours and illuminators.

The bright red Wild Child lipstick calls to me (of course). I'm also very tempted by the hot pink Neon Angel.

 Ingredients of the lipstick:

Images from www.rgbcosmetics.com and www.iliabeauty.com. All three brands are available from www.misebeauty.com and www.beingcontent.com has rms Beauty and Ilia Beauty.

rms Beauty Lip Shine in Moment

I went to the Content Beauty/Wellbeing shop on Wednesday to buy the new rms Beauty cream eyeshadow (Karma, a dark brown/black with silver shimmer) but it hasn't arrived from the US quite yet, so I bought this Lip Shine instead. 

Moment is a medium caramel brown shade with very subtle rose tones. It's deeper and a bit sheerer than Muse Lip2Cheek, which is a pink beige with shimmer. I don't own Muse - Moment is an easier shade for me to wear due to the warmer/deeper caramel tones. 

Here's Moment compared to Lip Shine in Bloom, a slightly peachy pink shade. 

Swatched (same order, Moment on left, Bloom on right):

The only picture wearing it that shows the colour well and doesn't feature blinking-angry-drunk eyes also has a stray hair on the forehead and my chin cut off, but here you go anyway. 

I'm wearing Moment on my lips and cheeks, with Magnetic cream eyshadow (also from rms Beauty) on my eyes. On my lips it gives a caramel nude/neutral shade, as it knocks back the blue tones in my lips. On my cheeks it gives a subtle warmth. 

I bought this from www.beingcontent.com. If you're in London and near Selfridges, the shop is literally a five minute walk away and well worth a visit.

Smokey eyeshadow palette from MAC

These eyeshadows from MAC are all part of the general (non limited edition) collection, and make a very good day to night palette. You can buy the MAC eyeshadows in pans with palettes at the MAC stores (I like the one in Covent Garden) and from www.maccosmetics.co.uk.

The shades are (from top left, clockwise):
Club: satin, duochrome red-toned dark brown and green), Brule: satin, peach-toned beige, Satin Taupe:  frost (not satin) dark taupe (I'd almost call this dark ash brown), Espresso: matte golden (slightly yellow-toned) medium brown.

If you have, or plan to buy, the Viseart palette I posted about here: Viseart Neutral Palette, then you don't need Brule or Espresso. If you only want a couple of basic, non shimmer shades that you can use on pale to medium skin for base, highlight, neutral lid and crease shades, then Brule and Espresso are great buys.

Swatched in same layout as in palette. Brule is pretty much the same shade as the skin on my hand, and just evens out the skin on my eyelid, making it a nice base for other colours. I also like it as a browbone brightener - I don't like the look of shimmer on my browbone or an extremely pale highlight colour, and this just cleans up the area nicely without looking overcooked to my eye.

For a simple daytime look I've quite often just used Brule all over and Espresso in my crease or on my lid up to the crease. Satin Taupe is a good colour for a daytime appropriate smoky eye, and then I add Club in the evenings. Espresso is a good crease shade for both Satin Taupe and Club. If I'm away for a weekend and I know I'm going to be going out in the evening this is the palette I'll often throw in my makeup bag.

Club swatched over Gold Carbon Metal X. Any dark cream base works well to bring out the green duochrome.

I sometimes moan about MAC for all the limited editions, but they do have a good range of colours and finishes at reasonable prices in their non-limited range. What are your favourite eyeshadows from MAC?

My cold weather face

It's been a bit cold recently, and these are the products I've been using to stop my face flaking off in the cold.

Mu London Organic Rose Moisturiser - what I love about this solid balm moisturiser is that it's a brilliant gentle barrier cream formulated without beeswax or (much worse) mineral oil. I have nothing against bees, but beeswax can be difficult to remove completely from the skin without a strong cleanser and can clog pores. Sometimes I cocktail the Mu with an oil serum if my skin is extra dry - I have a review of a very good one coming soon. My original review of the Mu is here: Mu London Rose Moisturiser.

W3LL People Narcissist Foundation/Concealer - I bought this and reviewed it in June here: W3LL Narcissist Review and I'm still reaching for it daily as my concealer. I use #1, which is a slightly pink based fair shade, perfect for concealing dark circles.

RMS Beauty Lip Shine in Bloom (you can read my original review here) - I'm using this on my cheeks as well as lips, it gives a really soft colour and adds extra moisture where I need it most.

Rouge Bunny Rouge Eye Khol in Salome - my favourite black eye pencil. It's quite soft and smudgeable, although not as smudgy as MAC Smoulder.

RMS Beauty Cream Eyeshadow in Magnetic (my review and swatches here) which is my favourite RMS eyeshadow. Next week a new colour is being released; Karma, a dark brown/grey, which is definitely on my radar. The shade Solar is also being reformulated to be more antique and less yellow gold.

RMS Beauty Living Luminizer (review and swatch here) - my favourite luminizer, this has made powder and liquid shimmers redundant for me, and lives permanently in my makeup bag.

Disclosure: Bloom was a PR sample, everything else were purchases.

Two day money off code at Cult Beauty

An email just popped into my inbox with some money off codes at CultBeauty.co.uk which are valid until midnight on Monday.

£20 off if you spend over £100 - LOVE20
£10 off if you spend £75 - LOVE10
£5 off £50 - LOVE5

Cult Beauty have just started stocking Lipstick Queen. They also stock rms Beauty, Rahua haircare and Fix Malibu skincare, all of which I like and would recommend.

I'm currently dithering over whether to finally buy a couple of bits from the Omorovicza skincare range that I've been tempted by for a while.

Sisley GWP at John Lewis 09 Feb to 25 Feb

 It's Sisley Gift With Purchase time at John Lewis again. These are the contents:

The serum and eye & lip contour cream are both very good, and although I'm not a believer in anti-cellulite products, the Phyto-Svelt does seem to tighten the skin up on application (I've had tester samples only.) I'd recommend Sisley eyeshadows and kohl pencils from the cosmetics and the lip balm and Floral Express Mask from the skincare.

Participating shops:

Trilogy Helping Hand Wash to support Child's i Foundation

Child's i Foundation founder,  Lucy Buck

If you need to buy a handwash, please make it this one:

Trilogy are launching the Helping Hand Wash this month which will be sold during 2012. 100% of the profits will go to the Child's I Foundation, which helps to find families for abandoned children in Uganda, as well as supporting families who want to keep their children who might otherwise be forced to give them up. They try to trace the birth family of abandoned children before finding adoptive families, and around 50% of the babies who are placed in the Malaika Babies Home supported by the foundation are reintegrated back into their own family.

The handwash is £13.50 for 300ml, and will be available from Boots. I have received no sample,  but I'll be buying a few of these. Trilogy is a very good and reliable brand, and the product blurb is this:

Helping Hand Wash combines the natural antibacterial properties of Elderberry and Burdock with natural vegetable oils in an effective, low foaming liquid soap. With Trilogy’s signature fragrance of frankincense, rose geranium and lavender, the luxurious creamy texture leaves hands feeling deliciously soft and clean.

The link to the foundation website is www.childsifoundation.org if you'd like to find out more about what they do and why.

Crazy Pig La Muerta Skull Ring

Nothing says 'Well done you for making it through thirteen years of marriage with me,' quite like a skull ring, and this is a beautiful, beautiful skull ring. La Muerta was my anniversary present from Mr London.

This ring is decently weighty (22g of silver) but it's very comfortable, fitting the curve of the finger perfectly.

The detail is exquisite. Crazy Pig has a wide range of skull rings and they all have distinct individual characters. I think La Muerta is a very pretty skull, although I'm not sure I'd call her girly. She fits a smaller finger (my middle finger is an N) well.

This ring is available from www.crazypigdesigns.com, and there is a shop in Short's Garden (off Covent Garden.)

Fix Malibu Wish Wash review

I cleanse and moisturise without fail and use an eye cream religiously, but as far as masks and exfoliators go, I rarely use them. I have quite thin skin and as long as I cleanse effectively and don't overload my skin with too-rich moisturisers or serums, I don't get congested pores very often and usually only at the time of the month when skin gets a bit oilier.

When I do find my skin looking a little bumpy or flaky, this is what I reach for. When I was a teenager The Body Shop used to sell a Viennese Chalk Facial Wash that I loved (you mixed with water to form a thin liquid wash that also gently exfoliated the skin) and Fresh did a similar product with rice powder.

Wish Wash is a white powder that you mix with a little water to form a thin paste, which you then use as a wash on a damp skin. I use this as a double-cleanse/exfoliant step after cleansing my face with my usual cream cleanser; Wish Wash doesn't remove makeup effectively so don't rely on it as a one step cleanser.

What I really like about this: it's very gentle, but effectively deals with annoying clogged pores on my reactive, normal-to-dry skin. The annoying under-the-skin tiny bumps are dealt with within a couple of washes, and I can use Wish Wash every day for a few days without stripping my skin.

Dermalogica Microfoliant works on a similar basis (and you get double the product for the same money with the Dermalogica) but I prefer Wish Wash for the simpler ingredients list and its gentleness on my skin. Wish Wash is £28 for 30g, but you only use a small amount each time.

Ingredients:

I bought mine from www.misebeauty.com. It's also available at www.cultbeauty.co.uk and in the US from the brand website www.fixmalibu.com.

Suqqu Frame Fix Cream Foundation 102 applied (video)

I said I'd do this video a while ago; it's a short video showing how I apply the Suqqu Frame Fix Cream Foundation. It's very basic; I just use my fingers to apply.

With this foundation, the important thing is to apply immediately after applying moisturiser and to do the face in areas rather than dotting foundation all over and trying to blend. If you don't do both of these things this foundation can be extremely hard to blend, grabs any dry patches and looks patchy and flaky.

On the plus side, the Frame Fix Cream Foundation wears brilliantly. It has a built in primer and lasts all day, and applied correctly it gives a very good finish (no shimmer, just a satin-skin-perfected finish.)

I'm still not convinced 102 is the right shade for me, but I don't think there is a perfect match for me in the new formula. The 100s are too peachy (although they are the 'neutral' shades) the 000s are far too yellow and the 200s a bit too pink. I think I might do better with the 201, but for how often I wear foundation I don't intend to purchase that shade to see if it is a better match.

As I mentioned in my post on the new Jo Malone Vitamin E Day Creme, this is a very good moisturiser to use underneath the Suqqu Frame Fix as the silicones in the Jo Malone give it just enough slip to help the Suqqu foundation glide on smoothly. Although I love Suqqu cosmetics, I find most of the skincare a little too heavy on silicones and alcohol for my skin (which is typical of many Japanese skincare ranges.)

Disclosure: Jo Malone Moisturiser was a PR sample. Suqqu was a purchase.

Beauty Spotlight weekly round up 04 February

Where can you learn about BB creams, cleansing waters, unique brands like Heidi D, luxurious brands like Rouge Bunny Rouge, drugstore brands like Maybelline plus watch a makeover? And that's only touching the surface! The Beauty Spotlight Team is where you can learn about all these and more.

Are the new B.B. Creams biased against the unnaturally pale? Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed tries a bunch out - go find out if she is launching a discrimination lawsuit or not!

Are you ready to bring out your inner child? Beauty Info Zone wants to show you how with Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush.

At Everyday Beauty, Zuzu's Petals talked about how her routine has changed over the last few years and wondered if yours has, too.

At Lipstick Musings, Shannon's discussing the world of natural cosmetics (and a particularly militant company rep) with On Going Natural...

Want to see what is in the new Jo Malone Vitamin E Moisturising Day Creme spf 15? Then check out London MakeUp Girl's post on it, including the ingredients list, here: Jo Malone Vitamin E Day Creme.

Modesty Brown shows us swatches of all four Rouge Bunny Rouge Seas of Illumination Liquid Highlighters. This is definitely one for the makeup magpies!

Have you guys ever tried a cleansing water? Paula, from Older Girl Beauty, tells us about Nars and MAC bringing this previously foreign cleansing method to our shores.

Its time for monthly favorites! Pammy Blogs Beauty reveals her Star Products for the month of January 2011.

Perilously Pale tempts us with more Rouge Bunny Rouge. This time a delicious serving of Jungle Fudge Glass Gloss.

Prime Beauty discovers her perfect My Lips But Better Lip Gloss and the collection describes her perfectly. Introducing the Heidi D Bossy Collection!

A foray into Organic makeup, Visionary beauty reviews the perfectly coordinated eye shadow palette #6 from Nvey Eco.

Paintbox Soapworks This Charming Man Sorbetto

This body scrub is awesome because it has me singing The Smiths songs* in the shower.

This Charming Man smells of clean and is perfect for anyone who doesn't like strongly perfumed or girly scents. The listed notes are tobacco flower, green cardamom and spices (clove, cinnamon and anise.) The spices are blended deftly and subtly; I can't individually smell any of them strongly and it's a clean, green cologne spice blend (rather than a warmer, woody spice blend.) This Charming Man is a masculine scent, but I love it for a clean, wake-up shower smell.

This scent is also available in soap, Slip body lotion and a shaving soap. All are available from Paintbox Soapworks on Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/paintboxsoapworks.

A note on the international shipping costs: these have increased recently due to USPS putting up their prices. It does now mean that shipping costs to the UK costs more than the price of the scrub itself. I wish that more of the total cost was going to Paintbox Soapworks, but £14 (including the shipping) is still a price I have no problem paying that for these, and the cost of shipping reflects the fact that these are 10oz instead of the more usual 6oz size of most body scrubs. It's also a good excuse to buy two at once, and save a bit on the shipping.

*Hands up if you have 'This man said, "It's gruesome, that someone so handsome should care."' going round in your head now.