Random Days: Estee Lauder Double Wear trial

Soooo I've tried the Double Wear! I tried it yesterday from about 7pm to 4am (I'm really a night owl) and I've had it on for the last few hours. Yesterday was to test wearability and today to check the colour.

Firstly: wearability. This stuff... is tough. I remember someone describing it as 'bomb-proof' which sums it up pretty accurately! It can be quite heavy feeling (although it will depend on how much you put on) but that isn't a huge issue for me. Essentially after my first trial, pretty much nothing had come off. I had to double cleanse (something I rarely do as my skin doesn't like it) just to get the damn stuff off. It was particularly ironic as I'd just been thinking how well my new cleanser gets off other foundation! So it is hardcore this foundation, but if you are looking for that it's not a problem.

Today's test (in slightly better but not great lighting) was to see whether the colour matched properly. From yesterday... I had my doubts. But I wanted to give it a proper chance. As a warning, bare face coming up...

Terrifying. I do apologise. Next primed with Shu Uemura UV Under Base Mousse (not a primer I love but I wanted to give it as fair a trial as possible):

Again, I apologise. Then we have the base. Now I know the lighting isn't great, but I didn't want to use flash so it would be as natural as possible. If you just look at my face it's ok:

But then you add the neck in:

Yeeeeees. Bit too pink! The problem I think I have here, as in a fair few ranges, is the tendency to have Warm or Cool shades. I believe my skin is Neutral, although with a more pink tint.

So will I buy the full size?... No, probably not. As I say, a bit of pink I can get away with, but this is too much. My Clarins Everlasting Foundation (which has a slightly more pink tint and is longlasting) really covers everything this foundation could do for me, but is a bit better colour. Not perfect, but better. I'm really glad I gave it a trial though!

My next mission is secret (it's all rather dependant on an eBay listing, so you understand the need for secrecy). Tomorrow I am hopefully going to try for a sample for that, and will of course inform you if I get anyway.

Luxie xx

Beauty LAT 104: Gosh X-Ceptional Wear Foundation says 'Stop Ignoring Me!'

GOSH X-Ceptional Wear foundation is something else I came across in my ‘must get pale foundation’ spree, and I’ve kind of ignored it for a while. See… I’m a bit scared of it. It’s one of those foundations where, if you get it right, it looks SO good. As in airbrushed perfection. But it’s quite easy to get wrong, and so out of about the first 5 times I tried it, I loved it once, which makes it difficult to choose as a good everyday foundation.

The issues I had were these: this is a very high coverage foundation. Which I like actually (I’m going somewhere with this I promise). But if you put too much on you will look like you are wearing make-up (although that can work in a vintage 40s pin-up way). The other big issue is that it clings to dry patches pretty badly and cakes on them. When I first got this I didn’t have a primer to smooth those bits over, so that issue pretty much killed this foundation at first.

But then I got a primer. And I gave this foundation a proper test. I wore with it, with a primer on my dry patches, on a tough day. It was hot, I went on a long walk uphill with my dog, I took the train from home to uni home (a 4-5 hour trip) carrying heavy suitcases and with a train change in London and in Kent to deal with. Long hot day, lots of exertion, about 12 hours worth of time to last me. So let’s face it, a day that would kill most foundations stone dead. This one… lasted. And lasted well. My major check-up was in London at 10pm, so about 10 hours after application. Admittedly my nose coverage (the oiliest part of my face) had mostly gone, but I expected that, and a quick powder sorted it out. My cheeks and chin and forehead coverage were flawless, and I was so pleased! By 1am when I got home it was suffering more, but after 12-13 hours that’s pretty good going.

So really this ought to be my perfect foundation. My shade Porcelain, no.11, is super pale, it’s high coverage, lasts really well and it’s reasonably priced and accessible (I believe most Superdrug stores carry the line, their website says £7.99 although I’m sure I remember it being more than that, but hey it’s even cheaper now anyway!). And yet… I almost never pick it up to wear it. Recently I was reminded of how stupid this was. I did a mini makeover trying products the other day and used the GOSH with my Sigma Flat Top Kabuki Brush. This is the photo on my Twitter from that mini experiment:

And another:

Look how perfect my cheeks look! No cakiness even with no primer (better brush, more moisturiser). I’m not trying to show off, just trying to point out how stupid I am to not use it if it works. Anyway, I’d forgotten about these photos, and then yesterday looked at my Twitter photo and went ‘I look really good in that. The colour and the coverage is really good!’. I then had a brain fail. I couldn’t remember what base I was wearing! Anyway 10 minutes later I pulled my rubbish brain together and scolded myself. Ok this isn’t the easiest base. But it looks so good when done right, and for that I can make the effort more often. So I’m going to make an effort to not forget this and actually use it.

Honestly though, if you want all the things I mentioned for a base and you don’t want to spend a lot, give this a go. Be careful with dry patches but I think it’s worth trying.

Rating: 8.5/10

Beauty LAT 103: The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Reviver- what is it?

I do love The Body Shop just a little bit too much. The main appeal has always been their ‘natural’ angle. I know that nowadays if you have a wander round Boots you can spot a dozen organic ranges that have natural ingredients too, but The Body Shop isn’t quite the same. It says ‘it’s natural, but it’s still going to be effective, it’s still proper skincare’, which is a fantastic bargaining position to be in.

I initially received the Vitamin C Skin Reviver through one of the many deals The Body Shop do. It is seriously worth checking out what they are offering, because you can sometimes get a huge amount free. There was the infamous Body Shop trip I did a few months back with the family where we came home with maybe £40 worth of free products? A-ma-zing. I was really excited to get this along with the Vitamin C Microdermabrasion scrub because I’d been really curious about trying this range. 

My first reaction to this was ‘Ooooohhhh exciting… what is it?’. No really… what is it? Because it’s really not that obvious. The name is pretty ambiguous let’s face it….

  

So, trying to work it out, I read the instructions…

Ohhhhh! It’s a primer! (You may think I’m exaggerating, but I literally did that.)

I have a bit of a love/hate relationships with primers. I love the idea of them, but honestly I’m not convinced they do anything other than add time and mess to my already over long skincare routine. The texture is not bad, there is something of a silicone-y feel (I don’t love overly silicone-y primers) but it’s not as bad as some, and I like the orangey nutty smell it has.

My biggest problem with primers is what to do with it. I don’t find they work on my oily areas, so I’ve tended to try them on my dry cheeks, as foundations can go cakey when the area underneath is dry. I tried it on the whole of my cheeks, chin and forehead and put my Nars Sheer Glow on top…

Hmmm. The tops of my cheeks (the really dry bits) look ok. Not mindblowing, but maybe slightly better. The weird bit is the bottom of my cheeks and my chin… I can feel the primer through the foundation. Primer, you may be new, but this isn’t cool. I tried to leave it 5 minutes before applying foundation but it didn’t feel like it was sinking in, and still doesn’t feel like it has. Look wise it doesn’t look horrendous, but there are a few spots where it’s kinda clogged together and the coverage doesn’t look as good.

I know only using it once might seem like a lack of proper research, but I can’t see this as something I’d reach for again. I think if you have dry skin this might be quite good actually, because it does seem to sink in better on those dry areas. I’d be wary though, if you don’t, of spending quite a lot of money on something which doesn’t seem to prime that well and won’t sink in properly, which really fails what a primer is supposed to do.

You can find this in The Body Shop retailing at £13.00, although as I said I got it free as part of a 'Spend over £25 on skincare and get free products' deal.

Rating: 3.5/10

Random Days: Estee Lauder Colour Matching Adventure

So! After re-reading and posting my NARS review, I decided to go and explore Estee Lauder and the Double Wear line. After a ridiculous complicated plan to get it at Boots (it was very complicated and they didn’t even have the Lauder brand in the end) I ended up at Fenwicks in Canterbury, where they have a lot of high end brands (I just about avoided the Laura Mercier I’m dying to try thank goodness!).

I generally avoid being colour matched, partly because of the horror stories on various blogs, but also because my skin colour is quite deceptive. Due to years of acne scars, freckles, general blotchiness and lack of proper sunscreen, my skin colour on my face looks quite dark. However as soon as you put a lot of ‘pale’ foundations on it becomes blindingly obvious that they are too dark, and I didn’t want to come away with yet another foundation that makes me look like a sunburnt tangerine.

I sneakily managed to spot the shade I wanted to try, 1C1 Shell, before the sales assistant got there and swatched a bit. My reaction: ‘Ooh… that’s a bit dark for the palest shade in the range. Hmmmm. Will that suit me?’. Then the sales assistant caught up, and I asked her to find my shade.

I was very impressed I must say! She sat me down, knew right away I’d need a pale pink shade and wiped some of my foundation off my jawline. Using a cotton bud, she applied a little of the Shell shade (good eye SA lady) to my face and blended it in with a brush. The best bit though? What she said next. She said ‘Yeah… it’s a bit dark on you. Take it home and see what you think because that’s the palest one.’ Wow! I know it sounds odd, but I think it’s such a good thing to be honest with the customer and say it might not suit them. This lady knew that this was a big chance to sell to me and instead she was honest and confirmed my own suspicions (let’s ignore the alarming fact I seem to know as much as the sales staff shall we) whilst trying to encourage me to give it a go. If you are in Canterbury, I thoroughly recommend the Estee Lauder counter in Fenwicks, I’m very impressed.

So I came home with this:

It’s quite cute! I like the fact this should allow a few applications (I don’t think it’d do 10 as it says, but that’s a small quibble) and that unlike drugstore brands I can actually try it in my own house with my own brush rather than blowing all my money on a too dark foundation again.

Initial reactions to the foundation are a bit doubtful, I do have another foundation on my face so it’s unfair to judge until I’ve tried it properly, but I think it might be a tad too dark. Coverage looks nice though. I’ll come back with a proper review in a few days!

Loves

Luxie xx

Beauty LAT 102: Nars Sheer Glow and my broken heart

NARS Sheer Glow… has broken my heart. I’ve never had such a painful affair with a foundation in my life. I will elaborate.

Over the holidays I decided I wanted to try a high end foundation (something in the £30 area). Mainly I wanted to do this because I was fed-up of drugstore foundations being the wrong colour. I’m pale and I’m neutral with slightly pink tones and it was just irritating how all my foundations were terrible on me. Now to my credit, I researched the heck out of what choices were available. I’m fairly sure I read the whole internet. I looked at swatches, I read reviews, I did everything.

NARS Sheer Glow caught my attention because of the sheer number of reviews (geddit?) that were around and how glowing they were (really I’ll stop it now). I can’t count the number of people raving about how this was their Holy Grail (i.e. perfect) foundation, and I was pretty convinced it would be mine too. In fact, I bought thinking that it would be, and was imagining our beautiful future together… until it arrived.

I can’t get it to work on me. The first time I used it? It looked cakey, and after about an hour was blotchy and horrifically bad. I was unbelievably upset. One, I thought I’d made a very expensive mistake, but two, and even worse… it’s the perfect colour on me. I have Siberia, the lightest shade, and it’s beautiful. It matches my neck perfectly and I’m not constantly thinking ‘it’s just not quite right’. So my perfect shade and yet everyone else’s HG foundation didn’t work on me. 

I went a bit crazy with my obsession over it. I was determined I could make it work, that I must be doing something wrong. I made excuses for it. Now yes I was having the worst skin week ever when I first got it. Yes I’m not the most accomplished applicator of foundation (I couldn’t think of a better word). But that said… I shouldn’t have to make these excuses. One of the best things I read recently was Lipglossiping’s thoughts on foundation (read here http://tinyurl.com/3j6hv37), and she is absolutely right. It should work whatever I do, on bad days as well as good. Even knowing this, I went on a mini trial, even trying it at 3am some nights to see whether I could make it work. The results?...

Application with fingers: This is how the NARS leaflet in the box tells you to do it. I don’t like it. I’m honestly rubbish at applying bases with my fingers, because it just looks unblended. And trying the NARS like this proved my suspicions correct. The only way I’m getting it on is with a brush.

Application with GOSH foundation brush: I love this brush, but no. Cakey, not blended properly, tendency to apply too much I felt? Again a no.

Application with Sigma Flat Top Kabuki: I ended up at this out of desperation, because I so wanted it to work. I got the brush a week ago (it had to be ordered from America, and so was a last ditch attempt) and the results from 2 applications?... It looks better. Not quite perfect, but much much better. I’m pleased.

So the positives from this experiment/car crash… the colour is fantastic and I think the range is fairly good from what I can see. I’d actually say the coverage is more like medium to high, it’s not really sheer. It is beautiful at evening out and covering up blotchy, blemished skin even without concealer on. It’s beautifully presented, and I’m not actually bothered by the lack of a pump

The negatives… the price. It’s a lot for the same amount of product as a standard drugstore brand. Lasting power (on me at least) is rubbish. I wasn’t expecting anything miraculously long, but even with a lot of powder and a primer this isn’t going to be my choice for a long busy day. The high coverage also means when it fades off you are going to notice it.

I don’t quite know how to feel about this product. On the one hand logically I ought to have returned or sold it ages ago, because it’s been more trouble than it’s worth, especially as I ended up having to buy an expensive brush to make it go on half decently. But I can’t let it go. I just can’t. I can’t get it out of my head that now the application is better, I can make it work for something, although I can’t really think of any situation it’s going to work that well for. My final thoughts are these: by all means read reviews. If a product does well for a lot of people, that means it generally is good. But don’t assume it’ll be a HG product for you just because it is for everyone else. Really try for a sample or at least a swatch before you buy. Don’t fall in love before you’ve tried it properly. It’ll only end in tears.

Anyone have any hints for me where I’m going wrong?

UPDATE: Yes sorry I know this is the longest review ever! I’m thinking I might sell this. It just isn’t useful enough for me, and if I can’t wear a foundation out of the house because I’m terrified of it melting, then frankly, why bother owning it? I’m considering going off to the Estee Lauder to get the Double Wear (which they also do in very pale shades), buying that, and selling the NARS and another foundation to cover it if I like it. Sorry NARS, I’m feeling brutal.

Rating for colour: 10/10

Rating for formulation/heartache: 3.5/10

NOTD- Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Peachy Keen

First NOTD!


Today's look is from Sally Hansen, and the new Complete Salon Manicure line, which you can see here: 
http://tinyurl.com/3qv3yac. I was lured by the promise of not needing a base or top coat, as it promises to have a manicure in a bottle with the base coat, colour, top coat and growth and strengthening treatments all included in it.

With Flash.

I absolutely love this colour, it's like a French Manicure colour but peachy rather than pink. It's very delicate and quite brightening on the hands. 

Is it good enough to eliminate a base coat and top coat? ...Hmmm. I feel fine not using a base coat with this pale colour, not sure I'd be confident with a dark colour. Personally I never use top coat anyway (too much effort for me as I'm quite impatient) but there are a fair few dents in the colour. It's not something that bothers me, but I'd use a separate top coat if you are. This is after one day's wear, I suspect I'm going to have to top up chips with more time.

Also ignore my rubbish painting skills! This is with 3 coats of polish.

Overall, lovely idea, not completely convinced it works that well, but not bad, and is a lovely polish in general! Tad expensive though if you just treat it as a normal polish.

I got mine in Boots for £6.99.

Rating: 7/10.

Random Days: What To Do?

So I wanted to do a quick post, felt bad for starting and getting distracted!

Essentially I've been trying to think of how I want to run the blog, what categories of posts to do (I love categorising things but am completely rubbish at actually sorting everything) and just generally what to do with this lovely blog! I have a few reviews written, need to get photos done, also massively need to work on writing shorter reviews cos the ones I have done are quite long :/

Feeling a bit lost this week I must say. Now I'm SO glad exams are over, but I'm feeling quite useless now. My housemates are very industrious and have about 97 jobs between them, so they're always working. I'm under no illusion that my lack of job is from my own laziness, although also combined with bad circumstances, so that isn't helping. In addition my 'yay I have free time!' mood is descending into 'Oh God I'm so bored I want to learn something NOW'. Shopping has been useful at taking up time, but is very damaging for the bank balance, so I now have to stop after today's horrendous expenditure!

So really... I'm stuck. I want something to do... but I don't want to do any of things I should or could do (and believe me that covers a lot of stuff). Which... sucks.

On the plus side had a MAJOR shop today (please someone keep me away from No. 7. And Laura Mercier. Bad things will happen if not.) and got some lovely stuff, might do a NOTD tomorrow! Also pleased my spare make-up is selling on eBay to make a little money back :)

Anyway, hopefully some actually good posts will be up soon! :)

Loves,
Luxie xx

Beauty Life and Times 101: My face and its wilful ways

So as I want to start off going with beauty reviews, here’s some hints about my face to help. I always think the reviews that are most useful to me are the ones where you can see someone has the same face colour as you or has the same skin type and you can get a sense of whether they’d work for you.

Skin: … This week? Pretty much disintegrating. See I had an exam this week, a big one, and my skin went ‘OH GOD I CAN’T COPE!!!!’ which was massively helpful. Thanks skin. Generally though, oily T-zone especially my nose, normal cheeks which have now turned dry and sensitive and many spot/acne scars/blotchiness. A whole range of loveliness then really! What’s attracting me at the moment is gentleness, anti-acne and pore clogging, not leaving it oily and making it even.

Hair: Again a bad area. My hair is huge, mad, frizzy and a nightmare, but occasionally (very occasionally) awesome. It’s long, very dry, very very curly and volume-d up to the eyeballs without any help. So products that moisturise and control are big for me.

Make-up: Skin colour wise, I’m very pale. I know a lot of people say that, but I’m pretty much ghost white. I’d say I’m an N5-10 in MAC terms and that I’m neutral for undertones, though I think I’m more Cool than Warm. For me it’s annoying because a lot of the time the palest foundation in a range is way too dark. But I don’t care. I LOVE being pale. Even in the British sun (we aren’t exactly tropical let’s face it) I’m usually covered in Spf30-50 because I’m paranoid about being burnt, or even really having a tan. I have dark reddy-brown hair and dark brown eyes and I love the Forties Hollywood look.

That’s probably a good head start J

Luxie xx

Here We Go (again)

Why hello there :)

I've tried to start a blog before and frankly... failed. It probably didn't help that I was doing a degree and was busy, but still... failed. I'm not convinced this will last, but it's got to the point I wanted to try it so badly again that it's restarted and I want to do it as best I can.

Some things you should know:

1) Hi. I'm Luxie. I live in Canterbury right now, and have just finished my degree, so I'll soon be off home to live with my parents again. Prospects: nil. Exciting times ahead obviously.
2) I wanted to do beauty posts quite a lot recently, so there will be a lot of those, but it will hopefully expand to other things like book, movies, poetry (I write occasionally) and life in general.
3) ... I can't be bothered to think of anymore right now!

So welcome blog. You are born!

Luxie xx