Kei Kei's Beauty Blogger's Best Things!

This week's blogger taking part in Beauty Blogger's Best Things is the lovely Kei Kei of http://www.misskeikei.blogspot.com/. Without question Kei  Kei's blog is one of the cutest and most stylish I follow with great reviews, fab pics and gorgeous design so be sure to go and take a look, you won't regret it.

Can you talk me through your daily skin care regimen, which products you use and why?
I have dry, sensitive and acne prone skin, so I am very into my skincare. I always exfoliate my face at least twice a week with Origin's Modern Friction Scrub. I love using Estee Lauder’s Night Advance Repair Serum to treat and condition my skin. The following products always help clear my skin of spots, La Roche Posay Effaclar Toner, Dr Nick Lowe Spot Gel and Savlon Cream! I now only use Aveeno Moisterising Cream to moisterise my face after trying lots of dry skin creams. I also like using a whitening serum during the day that helps with brightening my complexion and using whitening sheet masks most weekends to help treat scarring from spots. Not over cleansing my skin, using products in moderation and having a healthy diet really is the fundamentals for me in maintaining healthy skin.

What shampoo and conditioner are you devoted to?
I must admit I am very bad when it comes to hair maintenance! I have long hair and like to wash my hair more than I should, so I tend to pick up anything that’s on offer. Although recently I have been stuck in a rut with Pantene’s Nature Fusion and Aussies Volume shampoo. They are inexpensive and leave my hair really soft and clean! When it comes to haircare that’s one side of beauty I am very minimal in!

What about your top three make up brands generally speaking?
1. Clinique for everyday foundations.
2. Jemma Kidd for daily essentials.
3. Rouge Bunny Rouge for a luxury treat.

Ok some specifics now!


My top three makeup recommendations would be:
1. Becca Shimmering Pore Perfector - for flawless natural dewy looking skin.
2. Jemma Kidd Glosstick in Bridgetown or RMK Irresistible Lips in Pale Pink - for cute nude lips.
3. Dr Jart Black Label BB Cream – for a high coverage and moisturising BB cream

What is your favourite foundation and why?
I am obsessed with base makeup so I have a few favourite foundations but my most used for everyday is Clinique’s Even Better Foundation. It’s good for my acne prone skin and provides excellent coverage for my uneven skin tone. For a high-street alternative Bourjois and MaxFactor do excellent foundations too.

What is your favourite mascara and why?
I prefer more volume than length since I wear glasses. I have always stuck to Lancome’s Hypnose Mascara as it gives my lashes volume and enough length without clumping that lasts all day. I know I can depend on this for great lashes.

What one product do you think every cosmetic aficionado should have in their collection?
Probably Becca’s Shimmering Pore Perfector since it’s so versatile. It can be worn alone, underneath foundation, as a highlighter or on the body for really natural radiant and glowing skin. I like how it also lasts for ages and contains SPF. I put mine into a smaller tube and it’s always with me when I travel.

I love finding new blogs so please before you go, please recommend three of your favourite bloggers.
1. http://www.rougedeluxe.blogspot.com/ - Cute and trendy beauty by Haru in Singapore
2. http://www.lifeandlensofbeauty.blogspot.com/ - Beautiful and tempting recommendations by Jennifer in Hong Kong
3. http://www.bangbangsheshoots.blogspot.com/ - Beauty of Japan and your Japanese beauty essentials by Nic Nic in Tokyo

Thanks for taking part Kei Kei, it's been a pleasure. Out of interest, would you recommend that BB Cream for me? It sounds great! I'm going to go and read all your blog recommendations now!

As always, drop me a line if you'd like to take part yourself charlie@ladyofthelane.com. All welcome!

Liz Earle Superbalm Review

Liz Earle Superbalm is a salve for soothing and rescuing your skin. It's one of those handy little multi use products you can slip in your handbag and whip out to use where ever you need to, be it hands, heels, lips, elbows. Use it on your dry patches, your poor old nose after a cold, irritated skin and even on your split ends.

However, I've been religiously using  this on my cuticles and nails and its really helped to eradicate any dryness and keep the skin soft, pliable and easy to push back when needed. By cuticles I should add that I really mean eponychium, since cuticles need an entirely different kind of care. But after years of nibbling the skin around my nails (eponychium) is really dry and tends to be a bit flaky and needs a fair amount of TLC and Superbalm does a great job and I highly recommend it.

It comes in two sizes, the 30g jar (as seen in my picture) and the very handbag friendly 5g pot which is small but perfectly formed.  £15.30 and £4.60 respectively.

Available from http://uk.lizearle.com/

Disclosure - PR Sample

Max Factor Lipfinity Lasting Lip Tints

More lipstains for you to have a look at. This time courtesy of the fab Kenneth Soh who sent me a lovely parcel of bits to try a couple of months ago.

The Max Factor Lipfinity Lasting Lip Tints are alright. I don't love them, I don't think they are as good as the Revlon ones.

I was sent 06, 05 and 03. I don't know if there are shade names, there aren't any printed on my products...

Straight onto some swatches:
03:

 06:

 05:

I really liked 05 for a very soft natural colour, all the colours were nice enough, but nothing really wowed me. That said, I've reached for 05 a few times when I've not wanted to wear lipstick but wanted just a touch of colour.

I'm not finding these stay put for very long (if you lick your lips they are gone immediately and they don't last much longer than an hour on me), but unsurprisingly, the darker the colour, the longer the stain lasts and I found them quite patchy. I don't know if it was my application or not, but I can't see how I could be doing it wrong, it's a felt pen style so fairly straightforward to apply..

They didn't really blow me away and they certainly aren't long wearing... and looking at the reviews on http://www.boots.com/ I'm not the only person who has found this.

I don't think there's much more I can say about these, nice colours, shame about the product!

These are £7.99 from the usual Max Factor stockists, sadly I don't recommend you go and buy one.

Estee Lauder Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator Before & After

I'm just going to start off by summarising. If your skin tone is uneven, you need this product. It is gobsmackingly amazing.  Buy it.

Ok, now if you've decided to read on then I'll tell you a bit more about this wonder product.

Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator is an oil free serum to instantly illuminate, but theres more. This isn't an ordinary highlighter, this also works to even skin tone by working on dark spots, redness and discolouration.

On application it blurs imperfections, neutralises redness and discolouration and illuminates, and over time it starts to actually reduce dark spots, help keep your skin immperfection free with vitamin E and antioxidants and it also contains anti irritants to miniminse visible irritation that causes redness and blotchiness.

In tests, 79% of women saw an immediate improvement in uneven skin tone and after two weeks 84% of women agreed that their skin appeared more even toned. Having used the product for a month I'm not surprised by these claims at all. Its amazing. It's also a lovely scent, floral citrus apparently, I mainly get the citrus.

I started out using this product morning and night and noticed a great improvement, but have now switched to using this mornings only so that I can continue using my Advance Night Repair at night.

Anyway, some pictures. Some horrifc pictures of me without make up but it's the only way to try and demonstrate the effects.

Before. I'd particularly like to draw attention to the yellow circles under my eyes. Well, I wouldn't really but you know what I mean...

And after:

And more. Before:

And After.

 I'm sorry the photo's don't show the changes as well as I'd like but just trust me, this stuff is fab.

30ml is £46

50ml is £62

Available from all Estee Lauder counters now, and http://www.esteelauder.co.uk/.

Disclaimer - PR Sample

Benefit Girl Meets Pearl

Gah I've had this for ages and not gotten round to doing a review for you all! I won it in a competition on the Debenhams Facebook page months ago!

Benefit Girl Meets Pearl is a highlighter described as liquid pearl for your face.

I have a lot of highlighters but this is one I reach for very often indeed, in fact I'd go so far as to say this is my favourite! Why? Well because of the distinct lack of shimmer. It is, as the name suggests, a pearly liquid as opposed to shimmer, and although pearl and shimmer are in the same family so far as finishes go, pearl is, certainly for day to day wear, more suitable for my needs.

Girl Meets Pearl is a light pink liquid with gold pearl and looks fab, adding light where ever I dab it, which in my case is cheek bones, cupid's bow and sometimes on the bridge of my nose.

It's such a subtle natural effect on my skin it's been really hard to capture it in use, so you'll have to make do with swatches.

 Gooooorgeous!

I should also tell you that the applicator is fab, it's a twist up product, I should have taken a picture of it, but it's possible to just twist out the tiniest little which I then dab in place with my fingers. I should add that you can also use this all over your face under your foundation to give an illuminating effect. I've not tried this yet, but I will!

I love this product and highly recommend it. Seriously pretty for a natural glow.

An Apology

Hi all,

I wanted to do a little post because I've become increasingly aware I'm not keeping up with responding to comments on my blog. Most of my posts were scheduled a few weeks ago, and with the nail business playing on my mind constantly, along with a very extreme lack of sleep, think five hours a night if I'm lucky, and this is ongoing, I'm struggling to stay connected with the blog at the moment because my mind is elsewhere! I'm still writing a post a day or so and that seems to take up my entire allocation of blogging energy and come the evening when I would normally sit down and reply to comments, I'm either seeing a customer, or just wanting to do something that requires no thought whatsoever!

But what I wanted to say was I am so grateful for people who take the time to comment, I'm trying to keep up with comments on other blogs when I think I have something relevant to say, and I will make more effort to respond to comments on mine!

Thank you for bearing with me, and I'm repeating my mantra like a maniac at the moment....*this too shall pass*

Essie Resort Collection Summer 2011

I couldn't resist popping these in my basket recently when shopping for a few bits. I love Essie and all the colours in this mini set really appealed to me as they looked to have a pearl kind of a finish which I really like.

The theme of this little collection would seem to be safari given the terrible pun-tastic names and the colours certainly seem safari-esque.

Actually this collection, whilst I do love all the colours, one in particular, was a bit of a fail for me though. I've found the formula really hard to work with, pretty thick, much like applying a hite if you're familiar with that. Patchy, and the second coat often pulls up the first coat. They take a bit of effort to get on nicely and by the time you've evened up the patches your layers are thick and take ages to dry, even with a quick dry top coat. And even with a base and top coat, these all chipped the next day. This isn't what I'm used to from Essie at all! Disappointing. Anyway, lets have a look.

Da Bush:

Reminds me of the OPI Stranger Tides, although not a dupe, it's similar. A bit streaky, nice enough but not my favourite colour on me. Nearly lobster hands on me though...

Fair Game:

Nice, reminds me a bit of Chanel's Black Pearl. It's a grey, black with hint of green. This was taken less the morning after I put it on, all I'd done was sleep and there are chips on the tips of the middle and index finger.

Lion Around:

A gorgeous colour but an absolute nightmare to apply. Such hard work! I do love the colour but I can't see me reaching for this just because I can't be doing with the effort of putting it on.

Your Hut or Mine:

Oh I love this so much. Its a sort of corally, pinky, red, a bit muted, and its full of orange and fuschia shimmer. I couldn't capture that amazing shimmer too well, but it's so gorgeous.  Just like all the others it chipped badly and quickly but I'm going to try some other base and top coats because I really want to wear this. I love it sooooo much!

So all in all disappointing in terms of wear and application for me, but I do really like the colours.

Julie's Beauty Blogger's Best Things!

Another new blog for me this week, the lovely Julie from
http://www.memybestandi.blogspot.com/. I've just sat and read the whole blog from start to finish, very witty and I just love her style!

So without further ado lets get on with it!

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

How long do you have? I’m a total Dermalogica convert since I started using the range in the hope of transforming my troubled, congested skin into something bride-worthy before my wedding. It worked I was spot free on the day for the first time in 10 years!

It goes a little like this:

AM
Cleanse: Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel with a muslin cloth or microfibre washer (intermingled with Mario Badescu Glycolic Foaming Wash 3 times /week)
Tone: Kiehls Calendula Herbal Extract Toner
Eyecream: Clinique de-puffing eye massage with the rollerball and Avene, Soothing Eye Counter Cream (This saved me when I had horrible eye reactions when nothing else would, I have had really sensitive eyes ever since)
Primer: Dermalogica Medibac Clearing Mattifier on t-zone
Day Cream: Dermalogica Dynamic Skin Recovery SPF30

PM
Cleanse: Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel, with a muslin cloth or microfiber washer
Exfoliate: Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant
Tone: Kiehls Calendula Herbal Extract Toner
Serums/Treatments: a few times/week I add either BOD Moroccan Rose Facial Oil or a few drops of Dermalogica Skin Renewal, Hydration or Firming boosters under my night cream depending on my skins needs
Spots: Dermalogica Overnight Clearing gel + Mario Badescu Drying Cream on whiteheads/bumps under skin
Night Cream: Dermalogica Skin Smoothing Cream
Eyes: Kiehls Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado
Lips: Carmex- I have this in my bathroom cabinet so it’s what seems to go on my lips before bedtime!

What shampoo and conditioner are you devoted to?
Am not natural blonde, SHOCK! (who really is ?????) LOVE Redken Blonde Glam Shampoo & Conditioner and also the weekly toner treatment. Gives serious shine, smells grapefruity and zingy and really helps against fade. It is worth the price tag.

What about your top three make up brands generally speaking?
Becca, Clinique, MAC

What is your favourite foundation and why?
Was a devout Estee Lauder Double Wear fan for years, I could fake flawless skin when I didn’t have it. It also lasts like no other but recently have branched out and am using the Double Wear on the t-zone only with Lancome Teint Miracle everywhere else. It’s dewy but with good coverage at the same time, that lasts quite well. A happy medium.

What is your favourite mascara and why?
Pre my sensitive eye dramas, definitely 50/50 loyalty between YSL Le Faux Cils and Christian Dior, Diorshow. Now I’m using Mac Opulash which is a tube mascara so it washes off with warm water without any rubbing required. It gives similar great volume and density like the other two, but is still kind on my poor peepers.

What one product do you think every cosmetic aficionado should have in their collection?
I’ll pick the sensible one as opposed to the glamorous one. Dermalogica Dynamic Skin Recovery SPF30- a really great anti-ageing moisturiser, light but nourishing, sits well under make-up, loaded with vitamins & skin goodies, smells warm and spicy but most of all keeps you protected, SPF is the most important thing you can put on your face. No point in using anything else, if you have let the sun at your skin. If you let yourself get sun-damaged, you’re screwed! You would need to spend thousands to repair your skin.

I love finding new blogs so please before you go, please recommend three of your favourite bloggers.
Just three is so hard…..I follow so many
Christina @ The Hair Romance - Fantastic, down to earth, relatable hair advice, immaculate pictures (she’s a photographer) and quite a unique blog. She has recently done a 30 days of twist & pin hairstyles series and is about to launch an e-book on how to do reinact the styles. V cool.
http://www.hairromance.com/
Jade @ Jade Musing –Jade’s a great Aussie beauty blogger, she’s a hip Mum, who is honest, clever, witty and has a laid back approach with a slightly bohemian attitude I love to read. She is a bit of a sasspot and has a great nose for sniffing out great smelling products & perfumes too!
http://jademusing.tumblr.com/
Nat @ Rapsberry Rouge - I love the products she reviews, she seems to showcase every product I’m lusting, she has fabulous taste really!! Her blog layout is clean & pretty, quality images and the coolest Nail Wall with all her NOTD swatches. Be warned – she’s bad for the budget!!
http://raspberry-rouge.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much for taking part! Going to go and check out all your blog recommendations as soon as I've finished posting this! Also, loving the idea of using Teint Miracle and Double Wear - I have both so think I'll give it a go - great idea!

As always, if you'd like to take part, drop me a line to charlie@ladyofthelane.com

Lush Colour Supplement

You may already be aware of the Lush Colour Supplements. They've been out for a while now and available in 4 colours Dark Yellow, Dark Pink, Light Yellow and Light Pink. 
Colour Supplements are whatever you need them to be. Tinted moisturisers, foundations or concealers. They are £7.50 for a 20g pot and the main idea is to mix with your own moisturiser. You can of course mix the various shades together too to get your perfect colour match. That said, until recently there wasn't a shade for the extremely fair. Step forward Jackie Oates (named after the award winning folk singer Jackie Oates who worked on the music for the Lush Spa Treatments.

It is very pale indeed but actually when blended out matches the back of my hand perfectly.

It is however slightly too pale for me so I mix in a dab of Light Pink and it's great. A little goes a long way which is great. Even without mixing in moisturiser it isn't terribly high coverage but it's nice enough with a dewy finish, for longevity I find it needs a light dusting of powder to hold it in place.

I can't really be bothered with mixing it with moisturiser, my morning routine takes long enough as it is but I do like it used alone so it all works out in the end.

A nice product with beautiful ingredients (oats, honey, shea butter and mineral oil free) and now suitable for even the palest amongst us. Nice one Lush!

Disclaimer - PR Sample

Revlon CustomEyes Mascara Review

Revlon CustomEyes Mascara is a product I was keen to try out having heard the hype, sadly for me this really didn't work out for me...read on to find out why.

The mascara's point of interest is that you can adjust the wand to two positions, with position one giving you "length and drama" and position two giving you "length and definition". Its clever, if you look really closely as you adjust the wand you can see little extra bristles poking out. I thought it was clever anyway.

The following two pictures are the two different settings in use. The first being "length and definition" and the second being "length and drama". I have to be totally honest and say I couldn't see much difference between the two and I also want you to notice the black specks under my lower lashes and in the corner of the eye. I'd only been wearing this mascara for 20 minutes at the time of taking these pictures.

For a better look at the differences:

I know they aren't brilliant pictures but they give the general idea right? I really couldn't see much difference between the two eyes although I did like the look of the mascara and thought it gave me a good seperated look, so I wasn't sold on the gimmick of two looks, but I did like the overall way the mascara looked.

But think back to those black specks under my eye after 20 mins of wear and behold the same area after an hour and half of wear:

 Do you see that? It's flaking off all over the shop. On my upper lid, under my eye, down on to my cheek and out towards the bottom end of my eyebrow. Sadly, this just doesn't have staying power for me.

So its not a great review from me for Revlon Customeyes mascara, I like the look it gives me but it doesn't wear at all well on me and I can't help but feel disappointed in the lack of difference between the two settings. I see I'm not the only one who has found that to be the case. Although I've not yet seen anyone having the same problems with the flaking that I've had so who knows whats going on there!

Revlon do fantastic make up and generally speaking I love the brand, but I've not got on with any of their mascara's yet! Can't have it all I suppose!

Have you tried this? Did you have better luck than me?

Disclaimer - PR Sample

The BSQ. Natural Couture Fragrance Collection

Now this is lovely. Lovely products, a lovely idea and beautiful scents. A collaboration of art and fragrance.

The collection was inspired by the elegant photographic collection by John French (1906-1966). John French was a top fashion photographer during the sixties and after his death his archive was presented to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The Bsq. Natural Couture collection is a range of fragrances and body care products produced in collaboration with the V&A. No minerals oils, no SLES, no artificial colours, no synthetic ethanol perfume bases...

I tried out the White Amber range which is a warming fragrance with amber and sandalwood essential oils, with additional notes of vanilla, mandarin, jasmine, violet, ylang ylang amongst others. The other three fragrances in the range are White Bergamot and White Muguet, all of which sound lovely and for each fragrance there are three products, an Eau de Toilette, Shower Cream, Body Lotion and a Hand and Nail Cream.

White Amber is a beautiful fragrance and I've worn it most days since I received it, it's wonderful layering with the body lotion and the hand cream.

The perfume lasts well on me and isn't too pungent but still strong, the body lotion is very light and none greasy, it wouldnt' be enough for me in the winter but during the summer months it's great, and the hand cream is quickly absorbed and moisturising. I like using it before I get into bed so my hands scent the area, it feels a bit decadent :)

Shower Cream 200ml - £14.00

Body Lotion 200ml - £16.00
Body Butter 150ml - £19.00
Hand & Nail Cream 100ml - £12.00
EDT 100ml - £35.00
Gift Set containing Body Lotion 200ml & EDT 30ml - £25.00

 The range is available from http://www.houseoffraser.co.uk/ and is well worth a look next time you're in there, its really different and beautiful.
 
Disclaimer - PR Samples

Nars Multiple Tint - Beverly Hills

I've spoken before about my unwillingness to purchase Nars Multiples at their full retail price. I like them well enough but I know I wouldn't use them often enough to warrant the £29 price tag...

Last year, last Summer I believe Nars released three new Multiples, the Tints in sweetie bright colours but that actually applied sheer and I wanted them all...but I just couldn't spend the money on them. Generally speaking they are not still available although there are a few stores that have one or two dotted around if you search hard enough.

I was lucky enough to grab Beverly Hills in a blog sale not so long ago. I do mean grab too, my little fingers have never typed so fast when I saw it listed.

Beverly Hills might be terrifying to some given that it looks bright bright red in it's tube. Not me though, I embrace the red!

These have a different feel to the normal multiples, feeling wetter and more balm-y, and as such they work best on top of a cream foundation or bare skin. They do work fine on powder, but they are at their dewy best without. Essentially these have a similar look when applied to a stain, rather than an opaque colour and is buildable...up to a point.

Here it is lightly applied:

What is really nice about this product is that you can get a glowy, dewy look without having to have iridescence or shimmer. This just lightly shines on your skin.

I'm actually a bit sad these haven't made the permanent line as I'd love to have the Orange one... although I may just have spied it on the Selfridges site....

Lancome L'Absolu Nu Lipsticks Review

Moisture Replenishing Lip Colour they say! Which translates as sheer (in most cases), moisturising lipsticks which promise to give you a bare lip sensation. I don't agree but they are certainly very very light indeed.

The packaging is absolutely stunning! What these are really are the latest line of lipsticks following this years trend for balm like lipsticks and these are as lovely as any other I've tried.

I find some of the colours don't work well for me as I my lips are too pigmented to carry off sheer pale colours but regardless these lipsticks feel lovely on, are moisturising and are fab for every day wear.

In comparison to the other lipsticks in this style I've tried, the Clinique Chubby Sticks, Chanel's Coco Shine's (which I've only tried in store) and the Shiseido Shimmering Rouge's, I personally find them all very similar in consistency and wear. But what I will say for these Lancome ones is that the packaging is by far the prettiest!

L-R Shades 204, 101, 103 and 202.

And swatches in the same order as above.

And on the lips, again in the same order.

So there we have it. Well worth a look if this style of lipstick is your thing, they feel beautiful on, add a light sheen but absoltuely zero stickyness and are £19.50.

My fave is 103, seemingly a nothing in the swatch, but a gorgeous sheer berry shade on the lips.

What say you?

Disclosure - PR Samples