Trollbeads Autumn 2012

 The Trollbeads Autumn 2012 collection was launched at the end of August, and I picked up a couple of beads from it; the beige/brown Cozy and blue Wave of Dreams. Wave of Dreams is like a cross between Azure Bubbles and the single colour 'Wave' style beads that Trollbeads have been featuring since Autumn 2011.  These are both from the blue/cream coloured Indigo Kit - although I liked the look of all the beads in it I've learned my lesson that bumpy beads annoy me (from the Spring 2011 Beach Kit) and so resisted buying the whole kit.

The other glass bead kit is the Coral Kit. The Scarlet Armadillo from that will be going on my Christmas list, but I'm not massively grabbed by any of the others.

There were quite a number of silver beads released with Autumn 2012. The 'family life' beads don't appeal to me much (I prefer nature/symbol silver beads personally) but I do like the look of the new style Chinese Zodiac ones. They are expensive at £51 each, and I don't like massive silver beads so I'll probably pass on those too.

Here are the beads I bought on a Trollbeads black leather bracelet, with a Turquoise Armadillo (a lovely one that Miss London picked out for me for my birthday) and silver Angles, Triangles. I like the look of just a few beads worn on a leather bracelet; it's a nice way to wear Trollbeads if you are just starting out with them.

Some new RMS Beauty purchases

Rose-Marie Swift (the make up artist behind RMS Beauty) was recently in London and Content Beauty held an event with her. I wouldn't have missed it for the world, and ended up with a couple of new items on my wishlist that promptly ended up in an online basket at www.beingcontent.com.

I bought:

Un Cover Up Concealer in 22 (I used to be 11, since I stopped using sunscreen every day I am not quite so pale, so 22 is a better match, and the one the lady (Rose-Marie) herself used on me).  £28.

Lip2Cheek in Muse - translucent seashell beige, with a hint of pink and the subtlest shimmer. £28.

Lip & Skin Balm in Simply Cocoa. This is an effective, non-sticky, not too shiny lip balm. You can also use it on dry patches anywhere or as an eye cream. I wish I had bought this years ago. It's an excellent base for lipstick. £17.

For a rough idea of the colour difference between Un-Cover Up 11 and 22, here's an old picture of mine of 11. I used this up ages ago, so I can't do a side by side comparison unfortunately. I'd say 11 covers a MAC 15-20 depth (Drivol About Frivol, who is lighter than a MAC 15 (MAC 10?) can just about wear 11, although she'd prefer it a little paler and less yellow).  22 is more of a MAC 25-30 depth.

Swatch of Muse Lip2Cheek (left) and Un Cover Up 22 (right).

Blended out - Muse becomes almost imperceptible, although it is darker and a shade pinker than Un Cover 22, and also has a really subtle sheen/shimmer to it. It's not at all obvious; even on close inspection it looks pretty much like bare skin on me, but somehow, to my eye, better. If you already have plump dewy cheeks this isn't likely to do very much for you at all, and I think you'd be better off using one of the darker Un Cover Ups or Seduce cream eyeshadow for a stronger contour. I love it though - I'm a big fan of the un-made up look, and it just does something nice to my face when I use it on my cheekbones.  On the lips it knocks back natural colour and gives a Bardot-esque look without being heavy or concealer-ish. It's not a look I like on myself personally (I prefer more colour on my lips) but if you're looking for a natural, non-shiny but not dry nude lip Muse is lovely.

Muse applied to lips. 

Here's a comparison of the Living Luminizer and Muse. Luminizer is more glow-y/sheeny-y and a pale cool pearl. 

Blended out. Lots of RMS Beauty products make excellent highlight/luminizers - Solar cream eyeshadow is great for a more obvious shimmering gold, and they all blend well together too. 

Rose-Marie Swift herself was an utter joy. She is frank and fearless, unafraid to express opinions and be counted for what she believes in. This translates into her products; she doesn't accept lesser grade anything and has made some really excellent products that are simple and a pleasure to use.

NatOrigin Pencil Eyeliner review

 NatOrigin pencil eyeliners are affordable cleaner (no petrochemicals, mostly plant based) eye pencils with a formula that I like very much.

It's possible to draw a fine line, but the NatOrigin pencils are also easy to smudge for a softer line. I do find they fade over the course of a day if not set with a powder eyeshadow, but the texture is more comfortable than a long-wearing formula.

The two new colours, grey and lilac (it's more purple than lilac), are both on the cooler/blue side. The black is a good basic black. None of the three I tried have shimmer. 

Top to bottom: Black, Grey and Lilac. 

Smudged. These make a good base for powder eyeshadows. 

£7.05 for 1.1g, available from www.natorigin.co.uk. The NatOrigin Pencil Eyeliners are also available in brown, blue and green. 

Ingredients:

Hydrogenated Palm Oil, Hydrogenated Coco-Glycerides, Cetyl Laurate, Talc, Cera Alba (Beeswax), Stearic Acid, Stearyl Stearate, Organic Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Extract, Tocopherol, Bisabolol, Organic Rubus Idaeus (Raspberry) Seed Oil. May Contain ±: CI 77499 – CI 77491 – CI 77492 (Iron Oxides), CI 77007 (Ultramarines), CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), CI 77510 (Ferric Ammonium Ferrocyanide), CI 77742 (Manganese Violet), CI 19140 (Yellow 5 Lake)

Disclosure: samples provided for review. 

Beauty Spotlight What's In My... with Beauty Crazed

For some time we've suspected that Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed is all kinds of nuts but her turn with the Beauty Spotlight's "What's In My...?" proves it beyond any doubt!

Take a trip into her twisted mind and overstuffed dressing table and be sure to stay tuned for her upcoming appearance on "Hoarders - Beauty Edition"! Click on the picture to go to her blog and see what's in there.

For Strange Women Poison Ivy Lip Embellishment (balm)

Don't worry - this does not contain actual poison ivy.

I love the For Strange Women aesthetic. This is a beeswax/natural vegetable oils lip balm with natural fragrance oils and a little stevia to sweeten.

Poison Ivy is quite a fresh green smell. I find it keeps my lips feeling comfortable and I love the card packaging (which holds up well to being chucked in my make up bag). It costs $6.50 (about £4), and is available from the For Strange Woman Etsy Shop and directly from the website www.forstrangewomen.com.

Ingredients:

Roxana Illuminated Perfume Impromptu review

Impromptu is a fragrance riff that Roxana Villa put together as a result of blending various chords she had on her desk when she was meant to be tidying it up (hence the name, Impromptu). She ended up with a smoky, Chapparal-esque woody blend, to which she added geranium for a floral, rosy note, and then botanical leather notes (tarragon, basil, clary sage and mimosa). Roxana avoided the very costly ingredients like rose, jasmine, orris and oud, to see if she could create something beautiful without using these ingredients.

Did she succeed? Well, I finished the sample Roxana sent me and have bought the 3.75ml full size myself. Impromptu has the Illuminated Perfume magic (that smell of the wood and the wild) and is a lovely smoky, woody, spicy floral. It smells like the child of a marriage between Chaparral and Aurora, and my sample wore well over both Chaparral and To Bee solids.

The 3.75ml size costs $45 (about £30) and is about half the price gram for gram of the main line of liquid perfumes (which go for about £120 for 7g - and are beautiful enough to be worth that price). 1g vials are also available for $15 (about £10). Links to the Etsy listings are below:

Illuminated Perfume Impromptu 3.75ml from Etsy.

Illuminated Perfume Impromptu 1g from Etsy.

This is a limited edition, although Roxana has indicated she might do something similar again in the future. It's a lovely way to experience Illuminated Perfume liquid fragrance at a lower price entry point.

Disclosure: sample provided without charge. 

Beauty Spotlight Team weekly round up 15 September

The Beauty Spotlight Team is back with more of their favorite posts. If you look carefully we have a new member of the team. Welcome to Lola of Lola's Secret Beauty Blog. She might need to change that name since she's not a secret anymore!

So we have all heard the buzz about BB Creams? Well, now there is a newer and "better" version? Enter the CC Cream! Pammy Blogs Beauty tries Wei's Ideal Skin Perfect Finish CC Cream (and falls in love) in the Wei To Go Sleep Over Beauty Kit.

Polish insomniac has bottle shots from the new Sally Hansen Lustre Shine collection - is this the return of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms we have all been waiting for???

Smoky green paired with rich copper; perfect colours for fall, Visionary beauty looks at the Chantecaille Elephant palette.

Lola's Secret Beauty Blog has discovered that Le Métier de Beauté's Dualistic Eye Pencil in Tamarack might just be the most gorgeous multipurpose eye pencil ever invented!

Are you burnt out on hearing about subscription boxes? Beauty Info Zone thinks that seeing the PopSugar Must Have box will change your mind.

The Pink Sith brings you a review of the new Balenciaga Florabotanica Eau de Parfum With a Film Noir Detective Narration to get you in the mood!

Modesty Brown has a go at re-creating the Rouge Bunny Rouge Santa Ana look…then realises she has to do the school run.

Prime Beauty asks: Want super long "drag queen" lashes? Does a beauty addict have Sephora on speed dial? Of course! Get bat-worthy lashes with SENSAI Eye Lash Base 38c! You're welcome.

London MakeUp Girl has been using Chantecaille Faux Cils Longest Lash mascara for a month now. Has it given her lashes to rival Elizabeth Taylor's? Read her review of Chantecaille Faux Cils Longest Lash mascara to find out.

Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed wants her Canadian and US readers to look as good as Cindy Crawford so is giving away a Meaningful Beauty skincare system - enter now for supermodel potential skin!

Check out what Paula, from Older Girl Beauty, thinks is her Favorite Fall Polish.

Christa at Perilously Pale has been busy swatching her Inglot Freedom System Eye Shadows for us. Check out her more colourful 20 pan palette.

Chantecaille Faux Cils Longest Lash follow up

Having bought the most expensive mascara known to woman, I'm following up after a month of use (nearly every day, and every day that I've worn mascara). The Emperor at best has some underwear on for me.

Back in August:

After one month's use. I've seen if I can build up the mascara with a couple of layers here, and it does that, but no more than Lancome Hypnose does for me. I do actually find it a bit clumpy when I try to build it up, contrary to the claims. 

It's a nice mascara. My lashes do seem quite well looked after and more flexible, but again, I think I got a similar result with Hypnose Precious Cells.

My lashes are okay - they aren't what they were twenty years ago, but they aren't particularly fine or weak yet. Perhaps, like skincare, my lashes just aren't sufficiently dry enough to massively benefit from this product yet.

I won't be repurchasing, and I will quite happily move back to the Lancome.

Haus of Gloi Halloween 2012 Spider Silk Review

It's Halloween, my favourite time of the year for bath and body smells, and I placed my customary Haus of Gloi order at the end of August.

I went for my usual annual Samhain fix, but also decided to give the new fragrance, Spider Silk, a go in the Bubbling Scrub and Pumpkin Butter.

Haus of Gloi describes Spider Silk as: Procured from a dream: delicate water mint, wispy grey musk, crystalline webs of amber, oakmoss, torchwood, copaiba resin, and a touch of withered violet leaf.

To my nose, Spider Silk is a dusty, slightly floral musk. The water mint note is extremely delicate (I can't detect mint at all) so don't let that listed note put you off if you aren't a mint fan. It's more crystalline and less warm than Milkmaid from Spring, but I think those that enjoy Milkmaid would probably also like Spider Silk. It's a lighter (as in not heavy or foody) Haus of Gloi blend, but it still fragrances the skin well and lasts all day.

I also made myself a custom perfume, with notes of Red Mandarin, Coffee, Clove and Dark Patchouli. This combination starts off as Green & Black Mayan Gold chocolate (the coffee note has definite cocoa undertones) and then blooms into a rich, dark spice on my skin. There are lots of great notes to choose from, and you can have up to four in each bottle. Although it's a simple blend I think $20 is an excellent price for a custom fragrance.

The website is at www.hausofgloi.com.

Beauty Spotlight What's In My... with Perilously Pale

It's Perilously Pale's turn for the What's In My...? series and she thought you might like a peek inside her professional makeup kit to see what products she trusts for her clients.

Click on the picture to find out what's inside!

Illamasqua Generation Q

Illamasqua always produce interesting collections with at least one or two great items, but for me Generation Q is one of their best collections yet and it launches today.

The theme behind Generation Q is the overarching Illamasqua concept of inclusiveness - beauty for all races, all genders, all ages. Alex Box has made non-models (although, to be fair, they are all gorgeous) of all ages (from 21 to 72) look great. She hasn't tried to make the over twenties look like they're fifteen and they're not in the normal matte/beige/subtle-is-the-only-appropriate-look-if-you're-over-thirty. Although the colours aren't vanilla they are all flattering and easy to wear.

You can find out more about the models and the products in the Illamasqua interactive lookbook for the collection www.illamasqua.com/interactive-look-book. Karen is my favourite, because you've got to love someone with pink hair and I love her statement 'I am Generation Q and I am not a watered-down version of who I used to be.'

I was sent samples of the Precision Ink eyeliner in Wisdom (antique gold) and the Lipstick in Magnetism (deep raspberry cream). Both are excellent, and both went on holiday with me (they arrived the morning we were leaving).

Swatches: Wisdom is a blackened gold shimmer - I think the base is black but it's packed with darkened gold shimmer. It catches the light on the eye very prettily. Magnetism is a creamy, very slightly dulled/broken raspberry shade. I think there is the merest hint of brown/grey pigment in it, enough just to take the edge off the brightness without pulling the shade warm. I found this much more comfortable to wear than Illamasqua lipsticks I tried when the line launched, which were quite drying on my tend-towards-dry-anyway lips.

Wisdom on my eye, just applied on the upper lashline. I found it best to lightly blot the applicator tip against a tissue before applying in order to get a thin line.

Magnetism applied. It's a very pretty deep raspberry, and is not screamingly bright. 

Both together: 

You can now purchase the collection online at Illasmasqua Generation Q, and at Illamasqua counters. 

Disclosure: PR samples. 

Kjaer Weis Goddess Lip Tint

Goddess Lip Tint is one of the other items I bought from Slowfashionhouse.com with Lovely Cream Blush. In the picture above, Goddess is on the left (on the right is the Passionate Lip Tint I received for my birthday.) 

Goddess was a new colour in Autumn 2011, along with Lovely Cream Blush and Divine Eyeshadow (all three pictured below). These three items work very well together and give a cool toned dramatic-natural look on me. 

Swatches of Goddess (left) and Passionate (right) - Goddess has no warmth or brown tones, and is a stronger reddish berry than Passionate. It's a much stronger lip on me than Passionate (Passionate warms my natural lip colour and adds a wash of warm red, but doesn't build to a strong lip - if you want a strong warm lip I think Sweetness from Spring/Summer 2012 would be a better choice - Passionate is a soft natural lip). 

This is a picture of Goddess applied. I found it very hard to capture the depth of Goddess on my lips in a picture - in real life it builds to a deeper, cool berry/burgundy red, although it can also be applied lightly for a berry tint. 

I like the texture of the Kjaer Weis Lip Tints very much - they are semi-matte, semi-sheer tints that also have some conditioning properties. I have found some semi-matte lip products to be quite drying in the past (e.g. Armani Lip Wax) and the Kjaer Weis are not at all. 

Oskia Skincare Review, and GWP offer

I wrote recently about the Oskia facial I had at the beginning of July, and mentioned that I was given some products to take away and test out. Having used them for a couple of months now, here are my thoughts on the Micro Exfoliating Balm, Renaissance Mask and Bedtime Beauty Boost.

Micro Exfoliating Balm is a solid balm texture that exfoliates with granules of MSM and silica. The Exfoliating Balm gently removes dry flaky skin, leaving a soft and even complexion behind. This is applied to damp skin and you can control the amount of scrubbiness by adding more or less water; I make sure my cheeks and neck are wetter than my t-zone. What I particularly like is that the MSM and silica granules dissolve as you massage the balm, so it's easy to rinse away with no annoying beads or grittiness left behind.

I don't feel like my skin needs physical and chemical exfoliation at the same time, so I don't use this before using the Renaissance Mask, but on weeks where I just haven't had the time (or have forgotten) to use the Mask, or when my issue is flaky dry skin. Resistant skin that benefits from both types of exfoliation can use the Exfoliating Balm before the Renaissance Mask. I'd recommend the Exfoliating Balm to someone who is more bothered by dry/flaky/rough skin, and the Renaissance Mask for dealing with deeper clogged pores/congestion - regular use of the Exfoliating Balm will help with that, but the Renaissance Mask is better at it, in my experience. The Exfoliating Balm is also good if you want a quick exfoliation - there is no need to leave it on the skin, and it takes two minutes to use.

Ingredients:

The Renaissance Mask is the product that I'd recommend if you were only to purchase one product from Oskia, and is the one that I'll be purchasing myself when I finish the sample pot I was given. This is a gentle milk and fruit acid (AHA) mask that dissolves clogs and refreshes the skin, giving a clear and glowing skin after use. The acids are buffered in a glycerin base with the MSM that Oskia is known for, prebiotics and oligosaccharides. The theory behind putting 'nutritional' ingredients in Oskia skincare is that it helps the skin to support itself from the outside too. Of course, it's not going to help if you don't eat well too, but I do think (from an instinctive and personal experience perspective - I'm not a skincare scientist) it does help my skin, particularly in a product like this that exfoliates chemically. The Oskia Renaissance Mask is much more comfortable for me than Dr Sebagh Deep Exfoliating Mask (which is great for strong/resistant/oily skin, but too much on my skin).

The Renaissance Mask is also excellent for dry, overgrown cuticles. Mine grow like weeds (my nails grow quickly, and I think my cuticles just grow with them) and using an oil or moisturiser alone doesn't give me anything like the neat cuticles I see on nail blogs. Adding a couple of dabs of the excess Renaissance Mask to my cuticles while I'm wearing it as a mask on my face has made a big difference though; dissolving the excess dry bits without drying out my nails or the (much neater) cuticle that is left.

Ingredients:

Bedtime Beauty Boost is the Oskia night cream. It's a light cream texture that doesn't overload the skin and sinks in well with no greasy or oily residue.  There are lots of good skin supporting ingredients in the formula without being too much for a more sensitive skin and this would be a great anti-ageing night cream for anyone who finds that waxier night creams can cause congestion.

This can also be used as a day cream for a drier skin; the formulas of the day and night creams are quite similar, with the night cream being richer and the day cream more fluid. The specific day cream in the range, Nutri-Active Day Cream, does have a yeast ferment ingredient, and Bedtime Beauty Boost has niacinamide, so the formulas aren't identical though.

Ingredients:

Oskia have offered a really nice gift with purchase to readers of this blog - if you spend more than £50 on www.oskiaskincare.com and use the code LMG12 (you have to click 'apply to apply it) you will receive a free 15ml travel size of the Bedtime Beauty Boost, worth £24.

Disclosure: samples for review provided by company.