A Look at the World of Ellis Faas Lips

I have to say that until I started reading blogs I'd never heard of Ellis Faas cosmetics. And indeed, I still don't hear about them very often. Being down here in Devon, the more exclusive brands are never heard of at all! So I gathered that it was a high end brand, that produced lipsticks, eyeshadows, foundations, concealers (and I now know blushers and concealers) nearly all of which come in a pen format which looked very swanky but had mixed reviews. The signature product is Ellis Red. A red lipstick, the colour of blood, from the Human Colours collection which is supposed to flatter all women, as it is neither too orange, nor too blue. When I surfed the net for images of Ellis Red, it was so blood like it actually made me feel faint (being a blood phobic). Anyway, more on that later.

 Lets first talk about the packaging. It really does look spectacular. Like an elongated bullet, or a pen, irs shiny silver metal that feels heavy and expensive in your hands and handily, inlaid in the end of each lipstick is a swatch of the colour contained within so you can easily see which one you've picked up. Handy!

The lipsticks are available in 27 colours and three finishes, with Ellis Red being available in all three finishes. I was sent one of each finish in three different colours so lets have a closer look.
L-R: Creamy Lips L106, Milky Lips L201 and Glazed Lips L308

Now then, I won't lie, I tried all of these a couple of days ago and I couldn't make any of them work on me, they were streaky, or they bled or just looked awful. However I sat down to have another go today and used a lipliner and a lot more care and I'm really pleased with the results. So lets have a look at them all individually starting with Creamy Lips L106.

The Creamy Lips formula is a classic lipstick finish which you can build up  in degrees from a stain effect to full coverage. L106 is a gorgeous orangey brown colour, the finish is beautiful too and although I haven't actually worn this kind of shade for years (1990 Boots No17 Toffee Apple) I can see me getting a lot of wear out of this one.

Next is Milky Lips L201, aka Ellis Red. I really struggled to apply this without streaks previously but actually, this is a brush not a sponge and I just had far too much product. The Milky Lips formula is less opaque than the creamy and I have just read in the catalogue some suggestions for wear which I plan to try next time, namely a feather light layer all over your lips or applied to the centre of your lips and blended out with fingertips. I just went for blanket coverage in these pics. Turns out that although this is incredibly like blood, I'm not squeamish about it at all. It's lovely, but very full on here. Oh and excuse the blurry pic, sadly it was the best of a bad bunch.

Lastly is Glazed Lips L308. Ultra glossy and I found it not sticky and pretty long wearing, these can also be blotted for a stain effect. L308 is a great nude for me, not too pink or too pale. I don't think the lip swatch does it a huge amount of justice because it really is gorgeous on.

So there we have it, my first foray into Ellis Faas cosmetics and it's overwhelmingly positive. These all retail at £21 so they have to be good and they really are, beautiful finishes, stunning packaging and unfortunately for my purse I now want the holder, skin veil, powder and a whole host of the eye products.

 Gorgeous, covetable stuff!





*Disclosure - PR Sample *

A Lunar Spangle NotD

Well I must confess I wasn't actually going to put this manicure up as the pictures don't do it justice but I was in town this morning and had four sales staff in different shops comment on it so I thought I might as well share.  It's two coats of Orly's Lunar Eclipse followed by one of Model's Own Silver Spangle. Another reason I wasn't going to put this up is I don't like the way the Silver Spangle came out. I was hoping for stars on a midnight sky, but I got random splodges of glitter, far more than I wanted, all over. However, the reason it got so many compliments today is the Silver Spangle is so incredibly twinkly, especially under electric lights, which is why sales assistants noticed it, but sadly the finished result couldn't be captured by my mediocre photgraphic skills. Anyway, here it is as it appears in daylight, just flat silver messy sparkles on blue:

 And next here's a just a poor example of how it looks when light hits it:

 And finally a bit of blur to show some of the colours that show up:

Hmm. Well it is very pretty, I'll have to try harder with the application of Silver Spangle I think.  Anyone have any tips for using big glitters?

My Updated Mac Lipstick Collection with Swatches (Pic Heavy)

Hi all,

Hope you're all liking my new look blog. Please do let me know if you have any problems with it at all Also, I'd really love to know if the words in the label's cloud over there on the right appears orange or green for you?

Anyway, today I thought it was time to do an updated post about my Mac Lippies since the collection has expanded a wee bit and according to my stats the first post like this iss one of my top five most popular posts of all time.

It's not a large collection, but I think swatches are always useful although many of these are limited editions and so no longer available. Anyway, I'll stop waffling and get on with it. I've sorted these out according to the finish.

First up we have three Dazzle lipsticks. Dazzle is the newest lipstick finish to join the Mac range and is not one for anyone who doesn't like glitter. I love all of these although Glaringly Hip isn't my favourite.
L-R: Glaringly Hip, Win-Win and Hellraiser

Next up Cremesheen. I do not like this finish at all and although the colour of this lipstick is beautiful, I just can't get on with it all. I just find it so streaky. I had more than one of these, but sold the others so now I just have Jazzed.

Next Frost finish. It's a scary sounding formula, but none of these are Frost as I imagine frost to be (scary pale pink 80's lips). Frost is, in the case of the lipsticks I own, far more subtle and one of my favourite formula's. Special mention to Rose Maiden, one of my favourite lipsticks.
L-R Rose Maiden, Aristo-cat and Victorian.

 And what about Angel. I love this lipstick. But my daughter wound it up and then put the lid on... it was full, I can't throw it away so I just have to use a brush to fish it out!

Next, Lustre finishes.  This is a nice finish. Similar to Cremesheen but minus the streaks.

L-R:  Fresh Salmon, Viva Glam Cyndi and Cockney.

Amplified. Not a fan of this finish. It's a bit thick and heavy feeling on my lips. This is a lovely colour though, I should try to get more wear out of it really. This is Warm Me Up.

Next we have Glaze finishes. This is a nice finish, packs a good punch of colour, but has a lovely sheen to it. In my opinion Hot Tahiti is the perfect every day red.
L-R: Total Wow and Hot Tahiti

Lastly,  my favourite finish. Matte. I just love the look of these on, and the wear I get out of them is excellent. Matte isn't for everyone and people do report finding them drying, but I don't seem to have this problem. They just wear really well on me. Probably not a great finish if you suffer with dry lips. Honeylove is my absolute favourite nude. It's pale but not too pale for me.
L-R: Honeylove, Please Me and Velvet Teddy.

So there we have it! That's all of them. Now what I really want to know is, what is the glaring omission? What lipstick are you surprised I don't have already or which do you recommend?

My First Illamasqua

I've had my eye on Illamasqua for a long long time but I've never placed an order. Why? Well there wasn't anything that I fancied enough to try and I as you can imagine, there's no counter in Exeter so I didn't much fancy spending that amount of money on a brand I'd never tried or seen in the flesh.  All of that changed with the new Art of Darkness Collection. I wanted pretty much all of it. I couldn't have all of it, but I decided to get a couple of bits from the collection because, well, I just couldn't resist. So from the Art of Darkness Collection I got the Powdered Metal in Ether and the Pigment in Ore, and from the main line I bought the Sheer Lipgloss in Lily-Rose.

So lets have a little look at it all.

 Here's the Sheer Lipgloss in Lily Rose:

I must admit I'm a bit disappointed in this. The colour is much pinker on than I thought it would be, I was expecting a natural bitten lip colour but this isn't natural, it's very bright. It's also very thick and sticky, which does make it long wearing, but it feels unpleasant on my lips. Like you've come round after an operation and your lips are all gunky and vile. It is pretty and it is long wearing but it will take some getting used to...if I ever do.

Next up the Pigment in Ore:

I forgot mascara, forgive me. Well. This looks gorgeous in the swatch on my hand, I don't love it so much on my lid unfortunately. It's patchy, you can see the individual grains of glitter if you look closely and it doesn't blend terribly well. I must admit this was slapped on with little care for the purposes of this picture so I'll have to have a play with it with more care and some primer because it's very sparkly and the colour is lovely.

Saving the best til last, Powedered Metal in Ether:

Now this is a beautiful product. I've tried it on my cupid's bow, cheekbones, eye highlight and I just love it. It's such a gentle soft glow and being a pale gold, it doesn't add any colour on me really, just beautiful glow. Highly recommended.

So put it all together and what have you got?

Well, nothing exciting. But I must stress this was a very quickly put together face and I'm looking forward to a proper play over the next few days.

What are your must have Illamasqua products?

Models Own Golden Peach

I'm not at all sure this colour suits me to be honest but I really love it anyway. It seems that pearly duochromes are something Models Own excel in. The formula is just perfect. It's thin, three coats would be perfect but two coats is adequate, but it's quick drying & glossy. Very pretty indeed although probably more suitable for Summer than Autumn. I love it, another winner from Models Own.

 So what do you all think of this one. Do you have any Models Own recommendations for me? I particularly love this formula so if you can think of any other pearly/duo's they do I'd love to hear!

St. Tropez Festival Set Review & London Fashion Week

You may remember a short while ago I talked about the St Tropez Festival Gift Set. Although the offer is now finished, the products are still available individually I believe and I was able to review them.

 So lets talk about the Gradual Tan, Every Day Perfect Legs first. This is a pump bottle containing two products. The first is a gradual tan product and the second is a wash off instant bronzer.

Now I am milk white. In fact, not so far removed from the colour of that white bottle in the picture. I also do not have good history with tanners gradual or otherwise. They are either too orange, too streaky, whatever, I've never found one that that works for me. This was my first experience of St. Tropez and I had high hopes as I view it as a premium tanning brand. I also, generally speaking, prefer a gradual tanner since if I cock it up its less obvious!I really like the idea of being able to top up with the wash off stuff too. So how was it? Well, it doesn't smell repugnant, I detected only the faintest whiff and it wasn't unpleasant. However, I might as well just cut to the chase and say from the off, for me it was a total fail. The colour is fabulous, but try as I might I simply couldn't avoid streaks. I had patches on my feet, patches on my thighs, patches slap bang in the middle of my calf....you get the picture.

I am positive this isn't the fault of the product, but a user error. Yes I exfoliated my legs to within an inch of their lives but it seems that tanning and I are simply not meant to be. I just can't do it! I used this daily for two weeks. Thankfully, the weather was grim and I had no cause to get my legs out and show the world the patchy mess. I'm a bit gutted to be honest, I really thought this was going to be foolproof for me because I'm going bare legged to a wedding in October, but at this rate I'm going to be white. So incredibly white. I might just have to pay someone to do it for me...

Also included in the Festival Kit is a Bronzer and Brush.

 This is gorgeous. It has a very subtle shimmer in it, but I notice on the St Tropez website there is also a matte version. The shimmer doesn't bother me though, it's barely there. This is a soft colour, and I find it buildable so you can add as much colour as you like. Be careful if you try it on your face...it's easy to overdo. I really like this and have used it a lot since I got it. It is actually designed to enhance your tan, so after using the tanning products on your legs you can dust this over to maximise the effect. A very nice product.

While I'm talking about St Tropez, they have been very involved with London Fashion Week preparing skin for House of Holland, Louise Goldin and others and as such they've created a London Fashion Week Portal Here featuring pictures and details of products used to achieve looks, along with exclusive interviews with designers. A couple of areas are yet to be updated but it's really nice to have a look around if that's your thing, so please go and have a nosey!

So tell me guys, since I am a total tanning incompetant... how much is it to have it done for you these days?