Slendertone Face Video Diary Part 2

The Boots No7 Iluminated Make Up Mirror

You may remember a few months ago I got myself a dressing table and what every dressing table needs is a mirror. Funds were incredibly limited and I found myself looking at the No7 Iluminated Make Up Mirror on the Boots website. Now I must say from the off that the mirror is currently sold for £51.05 which I would never have paid for it, no it was half price and I paid £25, just before Christmas I think. I should also mention that I deliberated for a while because there are loads of bad reviews on the site for it. But I was running out of time since I didn't actually have a mirror to put my make up on with so I just went with it.

First thing I noticed was that the mirror is quite small. The whole thing is large and heavy, but the actual mirrored area is quite small, not a problem for me at all, might be for some though.

The next thing I noticed was how poor the light was. It really isn't that bright but actually, this was an initial disappointment but I quickly got used to it and sitting in the dark at night tweezing my brows for example, using just the light of the mirror, was absolutely fine.

Next, there are two sides, a standard mirror and the reverse being a x5 magnification. Superb. The tiniest things are clear and obvious, if not a little too obvious because I find myself cross examing every single thing that I would never otherwise have noticed!. Great for spotting brow hairs that are only just sprouting and need tweezing!

I must say, I was rather hoping the bulb would last longer than the two months it did...but having said that I do spend an inordinate amount of time using this mirror...but still! This leads me onto something that if you're thinking the light not being great is putting you off, then this might change your mind, but when I replaced the bulb, the bulbs we had in the cupboard here are much much much brighter than the bulb it came with so the light is much improved, so it's an option to just switch the bulb as soon as you get it if you find it's not bright enough!

 So would I recommend this? Yes I absolutely would. I use mine every day, intensively, and it does a great job, doing all that I'd want it to do. Bright light, great magnification for tweezing etc, and its not offensive to look at in anyway.  The big but is that I would say its probably not worth the asking price of £51.50. In fact I'd go so far as to say it's hideously overpriced given the amount of people that seem to dislike it. I'm sure it is probably quite often in the sales so look out for them and grab one because at half price its well worth it, but be sure to read the reviews on the Boots site to see what it is that people didn't like about it and make an informed decision!

And heres an arty shot for you demonstrating a close up of my make up free face. Eek!

New Estee Lauder Pure Color Laquers & Lipsticks

This month Estee Lauder are launching 45 new Pure Color Lipsticks (£18) and 16 new Pure Color Nail Laquers (£14). I'm a huge fan of Estee Lauder's lipsticks in particular so am quite excited about this!

In the lipstick range there are 27 Long Lasting Lipsticks and 19 Crystal Lipsticks. Unfortunately I wasn't able to try out a Crystal lipstick. I was asked to try two lipsticks and one was out of stock. I was however able to try out one of the Pure Color Long Lasting Lipsticks in Cherry Passion.  Wow!

 The colour is rich and long lasting, and if you blot it off it appears more like the pinky shade on the colour chart. It is stunning. Absolutely stunning. I will be very much looking forward to trying out more of these!

 So the Nail Laquers come in 16 new shades with a variety of finishes, creme, shimmer and sparkle. I was sent two, Violet Diva and Oyster Cult.

 This isn't a great picture of Violet Diva in the bottle, the picture of it on my nails is far more accurate, and Oyster Cult is just right in the photo.

 Violet Diva is stunning! A purple creme, just like a Cadbury's purple. And I don't have anything like it. I am sure there are plenty of purple cremes in existance but this is my first and its beautiful.

 Oyster Cult is a metalic silver foil, but its a very soft silver and it's kind of luminous! Very pretty. There are some streaks in the finish but to be honest you have to be examining your nails to notice them and I think with care you could avoid them altogether. I must say, if you dare to click and enlarge this photo you will see the awful state of my fingers and you can thank Sally Hansen's Kwik Off for that.

 Both of these were an absolute breeze to apply. So easy and hassle free. I found dry time slightly on the slow side, even with a fast drying top coat, but it wasn't a problem really. I'm not talking hours.

Here are the colour charts for both:

So many colours I'm looking forward to checking out! Especially Wild Blue and Wicked Green Laquers and loads of the lippies,  but especially Barely Nude, Bois de Rose, Pinkberry, Blazing Sun and Rose Petal. I can dream!

Amrita's Beauty Blogger's Best Things!

This week is the turn of the very lovely Amrita from http://www.the6inchstilettos.blogspot.com/. One of the first blogs I actually started following and I still love it now. Loads of varied content, great reviews and lovely swatches. What's not to like! So lets get on and find out what Amrita's best things are!

Can you talk me through your daily skin care regimen, which products you use and why?

Morning: Wash face with Neutrogena Daily Face Wash/Mask combo with Clarisonic, apply Dr. Brandt Lineless Eye Cream and then Nivea Visage Pure and Natural Soothing Day Cream.

Evening: Remove makeup with Simple Sensitive Skin facewipes, use Lancome Baume Eclat to get rid of all traces of makeup, rinse off, use Lancome Tonique Douceur (toner) and apply my Bobbi Brown Extra Hydrating Night Cream. If I’m suffering from a breakout then apply Dr. Brandt Blemishes No More Intensolution which is a Godsend!

What shampoo and conditioner are you devoted to?
I’m not devoted to any shampoo or conditioner because I’m always going between them all. I tend to repurchase Pantene Aqua Light and Aussie shampoos & conditioners though.

What about your top three make up brands generally speaking?
Ummm.. MAC for general bits and bobs, Barry M for nailpolishes and Revlon for lipsticks/lipglosses

Ok some specifics now!

What is your favourite foundation and why?
At the moment but go-to foundation is Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation. I’m not really a *big* foundation person so don’t own very many different types but my Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation is AMAZING. It gives great coverage and can be layered if you want more and it doesn’t look cakey on.

What is your favourite mascara and why?
I don’t have a favourite mascara because I’m still looking for the perfect one but at the moment I’m alternating between Lancome Hypnose Drama, Lancome Hypnose Precious Cells and Bare Escentuals Buxom Lash.

What one product do you think every cosmetic aficionado should have in their collection?
A really good moisturiser. In order for your makeup to sit nicely and evenly, you need a good base so investing in a moisturiser that is perfect for your skin is a must. It doesn’t have to be expensive and everyone is different so have a poke around the shelves in Boots and see what suits you.

I love finding new blogs so please before you go, please recommend three of your favourite bloggers.
1. http://www.beauty-fulfilled.com/
2. http://www.vexinthecity.com/
3. http://www.hellcandy.com/


Thanks very much for this Amrita, you're not the only person who has recommended the Pantene Aqua Light so I need to check it out soon. That Bobbi Brown foundation is another product I've heard several people mention of late so another thing I need to check out. Also there's a blog you've recommended that I've not yet checked out so I'm off to do that now!

So that's it for another week, if you fancy seeing yourself here, please drop me a line to charlie@ladyofthelane.com.

MeMeME Fire Eyes Create the Look Pack Review

I have to confess I was sent this for review a really really long time ago. Before Christmas. I hadn’t been asked if I wanted to review it, it just turned up in the post. I wasn’t interested in the brand so I just kind of stuck it to one side and forgot about it! Until now!

The MeMeMe Create The Look packs come in a large variety of colourways and are a very reasonably priced £15. What you get is a 4 colour baked eyeshadow, a mascara, a pencil liner and a liquid liner and I’ve had a quick nose around on the website and if you bought all these items separately then it’d cost you £20.99 for just the shadow, mascara and liquid liner, never mind the pencil which I can’t find on the site.  I actually had to check that I’d got the prices right as that seems a remarkably good deal. But yes they are. You also get a card with instructions for use, which I always like to have as when it comes to make up I don’t have much imagination.

I always discounted MeMeMe as a cheap brand and one which I wasn’t the target audience for. I think that’s still probably true in some respects.

So lets start with the Fat Cat Mascara. Awful. Within an hour of putting it on it’s flaking under my eyes and when it’s on it’s really unimpressive.

The Clay Liner is very nice. It doesn’t stay put for hours on end but its a nice dark taupe colour and I like the combination of it with the eyeshadow shades in the kit.

The eyeshadows are really great and the product in this kit that will have me looking more closely at this brand in future. Beautiful rich colours and heavily pigmented. The colours in this one are out of this world. I’m totally in love with the pink and the orange especially.

Lastly the liquid liner, it’s a pen style with a very fine pointed felt tip style applicator and its really easy to line with. Well, I suck at liquid liner, really suck, but so far as liquid liners go it easy! It does transfer to my upper lid unfortunately though after a few hours.

Swatches. Just check out those beautiful shadows! The red is slightly duochromey too which is nice.

All in all a pretty good kit and an excellent saving on buying the items individually, but for me its only the eyeshadows that have really impressed and I’ll certainly be going to look at these next time I’m in town.

You can buy from www.mememecosmetics.co.uk and I’m fairly sure you can buy in Superdrug too.

Nars Spring (and other things). V. Pic Heavy

I was recently sent a couple of Nars Spring items for review purposes. I was also very kindly sent a couple of Spring items by a friend and then I just had to go out and buy a few more along with a couple of extras to boot. I just really loved the look of this collection! If you’re not interested in my ramblings, scroll right to the bottom for swatches!

So in that pic you can see the Nouveau Monde Eyeshadow Duo (£23.50 Spring 2011), Bateau Ivre Eyeshadow Duo (£23.50 Spring 2011), Super Orgasm Perfect Match Lipgloss (£17.50 Spring 2011), Madere Pure Matte Lipstick (£18.50 Spring 2011), the Nars Pencil Sharpener (£5 Permanent), Sex Appeal Blusher (£20.50 Holiday Collection 2010), Club Mix Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil (£17.50 Permanent) and Frivolous Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil (£17.50 Permanent).

I don’t even know where to start with this collection of goodies but I’ll get the disappointment out of the way first.

The Pencil Sharpener. I was in the market for a new sharpener and I needed to spend a fiver more to qualify for free delivery so I grabbed this.  Its a sharpener with a lid, to keep all your shavings away, it also has a neatly tucked away little pick for cleaning out with and an adaptor so that the larger hole can do two sized pencils. Well it does a fine job of sharpening. Nothing noteworthy there. No, my problem with this is that lid was almost impossible to get off, and once it came off it won’t clip back into place. Nothing has broken off, its all still in tact. The lid just falls straight off again. Very disappointing Still, onwards and upwards as they say.

Moving onto the eyeshadow Duo’s next. First up is the one I was sent by the PR company, Nouveau Monde.  Incidentally, my first Nars shadows ever! A beautiful metallic, slightly greyed lilac and a rich metallic olive green/khaki. Both beautifully pigmented. Apply easily and richly with no creasing, fall out or any other negative effects. Highly recommended! Here’s how they appear on my eyes (unfortunately neither are good representations of the true colour):

And then we have the Bateau Ivre Eyeshadow Duo which I bought myself after falling in love with Lipglossiping's post about it. A lovely bright clear blue with a darker smokier purply blue.  They are beautiful colours which wear really well, both are matte, but I really need to find out from Charlotte how she built up the colour so amazingly well in her pics because I want mine to look like that! Anyway, all my pics of this sucked too but here you go:

Next up, Sex Appeal Blush. I’ve wanted this for ages and ages so I just went right ahead and bought it. I was hesitant as it’s so pale looking but actually it shows up really well on my skin. Its a beautiful pale peach I’m delighted to have in my collection and I’m really pleased I followed my instincts with it as although I always always wear blusher, I often only want the merest hint of colour. I also wanted a colour that was really neutral in a way, not pink or orange or red, for those days when I just am not sure what matches and again this fits the bill perfectly. Here’s how it is on me:

So that picture leads me neatly onto the next thing. Madere Pure Matte Lipstick.I wasn’t at all sure if this would be a mistake and I would never have bought it if I hadn’t have seen how great it is under other stuff on various blogs. Ultra Nude lipsticks are not normally something I can get away with. Certainly the fact that its matte really helps because I think I turn into a weird clown when I have shiny nude lips and they make me look all weird. And actually on its own it is passable. I do plan to use it more with gloss on top as it takes a lot of work for me to make it wearable. It is very drying I find and if you have any dryness at all it will highlight it spectacularly.  I like it though! And also, although I don’t have any pics, it does make a great base for a sheer gloss as it makes the colours show up really well. Here’s how it looks:
And then, next up we have Super Orgasm Perfect Match Lipgloss. There’s not heaps to say about this. It’s a very pale, sheer pink gloss, lovely non-sticky formula, full of tiny gold sparkles. As the gloss fades over time, you do get left with just the glitter, but that’s no issue for me. Just means it’s time to slick on more gloss!
If you’re still with me, don’t worry, we’re nearly at the end now! The last items I have to show you are the two Velvet Gloss Pencils in Frivolous and Club Mix. Frivolous is a lovely sheer natural pink shade and Club Mix is a stunning berry shade. I’m totally in love with these. The formula is exception. They go on like a dream. They add a sheen more than a gloss, they are comfortable and non-sticky and they seem to stay on my lips for a long time. I’ll be looking to add more of these to my collection over time. And both of these work really well over Madere btw (but sadly I don’t have pics).
First up Frivolous:And Club Mix:
Ok so that’s everything I’ve got. I’m not quite done yet though as I wanted to share some FotD’s I’ve done using these products and, sorry some of these pictures are awful ones of me, but I’ll rise above my own personal shame for the greater cause of showing you make up!
First Bateau Ivre on eyes, Club Mix on Lips and Sex Appeal on cheeks, bit of a mishmash I know.
Nouveau Monde on Eyes and Super Orgasm on Lips.
And these make me cringe but, but Bateau Ivre on eyes, Sex Appeal on cheeks and Madere on lips:

Urgh.

Lastly, but by no means least, the obligatory swatches. Nouveau Monde and Bateau Ivre:

Super Orgasm:

Left Colum Top is Madere and Bottom is Sex Appeal Blush and right Colum is Club Mix with Frivolous underneath, the picture has come out a little green but the colours still mange to be fairly accurate. Which is odd:

And so dear readers, I have come to the end of this epic post. I could have broken it down into a few posts I know but It just seemed pointless.

Anything take your fancy? Do you have something from the Spring Collection I don’t but that you think is a must have? Please let me know!

Blog Sale Update

Just a quick post to say if you bought anything in yesterdays blog sale, it has now been posted.  All recorded delivery. Please let me know if there are any problems, I have tracking info for all!

There are still a few things left and I've reduced the prices now. So please take a look!