August Empties

These empties span the last month or so. It always takes me ages to finish things and I was shocked at how my poor my efforts were when I read Lola's Secret Beauty Blog's recent post. I seriously need to put more effort in! I'm actually toying with the idea of a project to start using up some of my lipsticks. It gives me the fear but honestly, I think I fear having to throw away barely used items that have gone off more. Anyway...

I used these moisturisers up a little while ago now and they had a mention in my skin care post at the beginning of the month. I love the Emma Hardie Hydrating Lighter Lotion*, as you might expect from the name, it has a light fluid texture and is really hydrating. I found it created a nice luminous base for my makeup, the only downside for me is the lack of SPF. The Perricone MD Moisturiser* also has quite a light texture, although it does have some strange knobbly bits in it. Of the two, the Emma Hardie is my favourite and something I am likely to re-purchase in the future.

I bought the L'Oreal Elvive Triple Resist Shampoo and Conditioner as I took too long dilly-dallying over what to try next and needed to buy something quickly. I've not used Elvive for years and I admit to feeling a bit naughty having strayed from an SLS free formula. I got on OK with the Triple Resist and it did seem to help with the knotty bits at the back of my head.

When I ran out of both Elvive bottles at the same time, I started using up all the sachets and odds and ends I had lurking in the bathroom including the Rahua sachet pictures. The Rahua Voluminous Shampoo and Conditoner doesn't suit my easily knotted hair but after much agonising over the cost (and enabling on Twitter), I decided to buy a full size bottle of the original Rahua Shampoo and Conditioner from Content Beauty. These have just arrived, so I will report back on how I got on in a few weeks.

I was really sad to use up the Apivita Body Nourish shower gel*, which I originally reviewed here. It has such a luxurious creamy feel and a lovely scent. Thankfully Apivita is available online from Marks & Spencers now, so I will stock up on more when I run out of the children's Apivita products too.

The Bioderma Crealine micellar water is something else that featured in my current skin care post. I wasn't sure about replacing it but decided it would be silly not to when I had the opportunity. I tend to use it when I'm feeling lazy, instead of resorting to wipes or to remove my makeup before a cream or balm cleanse. I know it has a cult status but unless you're a makeup artist, I would say it's useful but definitely not an essential.

It makes a nice change to include an item that isn't skin care. I finally took the reed sticks out of the  Jo Malone Red Roses Scent Surround Diffuser* at the end of last week, so it's lasted three and half months. Whenever the scent started to fade, I turned the sticks around and this worked well to refresh the scent. There's no doubting that the Jo Malone diffusers are expensive but it's great to know that they last well.

Hopefully next month I will have even more empties to share. I live in hope that one of these days, I'll actually be able to include some makeup!

* These items were originally sent without cost for review purposes.

L'Oreal Miss Candy Color Infallible Eyeshadows

Today, we're going to pretend that the wind has dropped, the threatening grey clouds have gone and the (warm?!) sun is shining. For the L'Oreal Paris Miss Candy collection require sunshine in order to be truly appreciated. As luck would have it, I did manage to take pictures in a small window of light, so this makes the pretense a little easier.

There are three new Color Infallible eyeshadows in this collection: Innocent Turquoise, Sassy Marshmallow and Naughty Strawberry. Innocent Turquoise is a beautiful sparkling sea green, Sassy Marshmallow is an icy silver grey and Naughty Strawberry is a fuchsia pink with hints of lilac. All three colours are cool with a frosty finish. They're also more sheer than the other Infallible Color eyeshadows that I have. Even when you layer the colour, they do retain a slightly transparent quality.

Innocent Turquoise

Sassy Marshmallow

Naughty Strawberry

My favourite of the three is Innocent Turquoise. I find it easy to add this to my usual neutrals palette for a little pop of colour. Sassy Marshmallow gives quite an 'Ice Queen' look when worn on it's own and is possible a little too cool for my colouring. Although extremely pretty, I have to confess that Naughty Strawberry scares me in the same way that the fuchsia pink in the Guerlain Rue de Rivoli palette does. I don't wear pinks on my eyes, even pale pinks, and I think we can thank the 80's for this aversion. I'm sure those of you that are more colour confident would find an interesting way to wear this as an accent colour.

L-R: Sassy Marshmallow, Innocent Turquoise and Naughty Strawberry

L-R: Naughty Strawberry, Innocent Turquoise and Sassy Marshmallow

As with the other Infallible Color eyeshadows, I apply these with my fingers and find it easy to get an even finish this way. I apply over an eyeshadow primer and do not experience creasing or fading.

The L'Oreal Miss Candy Infallible Colors are available now and cost £6.99 each. They're available from Boots and Superdrug, I also spotted them online on Feel Unique. The collection includes several lipglosses and nail varnishes which I will show you in another post.

How would you wear these sorts of colours? Are you managing to pull off summery looks despite the weather or are you already looking forward to the autumn collections?

Disclosure: PR Samples

My Blues, Greens and Reds

The weather is so miserable outside that I felt inspired to do another colour grouping post. As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm not great at experimenting with colours but I wondered what a hunt for blues, greens and reds would uncover. I suspect that I'm repeatedly drawn to a single shade from a colour family rather than collecting a range from across the spectrum. So, no pretty rainbow of colours here.

Greens

Eyeshadows: MAC Club, Rouge Bunny Rouge Olive Violeteare, Green eyeshadow from Le Metier de Beaute Penelope Kaleidoscope, Green from the Chantecaille Sea Turtles palette, Lancôme Erika F, NARS Dogon and Rajasthan.
Eye Pencils: Annabelle Smoothliner in Jade, No.7 Metallic Eyes in Green, Sue Devitt Eye Intensifier in Bangalore and MAC Kohl Power Pencil in Mystery
Nail Polish: Barry M Racing Green, YSL in Wintergreen, Le Metier de Beaute Dionysus and Athena, L'Oreal Innocent Green, Nails Inc freebie in an unnamed Teal colour

Blues

Eyeshadows: YSL Pure Chromatics in shade #3, Sephora eyeshadow in Preppy Look (#41) and  L'Oreal Infallible Colour in Innocent Turquoise.
Eye Pencils: MAC Pearlglide liner in Petrol Blue and Annabelle Smoothie Crayon in Blubomb
Nail Polish: Joe nail varnish in Persian Blue, YSL Moonlight Blue, Lancôme Vernis in Love in Bleu de Flore (573B), China Glaze in Tempest, Orly Star of Bombay, Butter London Victoriana, L'Oreal French Riviera.

Reds

Nail Polish: Butter London Knees Up, Orly Glam, Lancôme Vernis in Love in Miss Coquelicot (154M) and Lancôme Rouge Saint Honoré (22)
Lip Liners: MAC Cherry and Le Metier de Beaute Rose
Lip Products: Tom Ford lipstick in Smoke Red, Ilia Crimson & Clover, Max Factor Colour Elixir lipstick in Ruby Tuesday, Lancôme lipsticks in Rouge Faubourg and Rouge in Love (159B), Revlon Colourburst in Raspberry, Kevyn Aucoin Liquid Lipstick in Aquarouge, Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Fume and Ellis Faas in L303
Cheek Colour: W3LL People Universalist Stick #5

I thought I'd add this final picture, so you can see exactly why all the images are so dark. I know we really need the rain but, seriously, enough already!! Hopefully I will get opportunity to take some of these again when the sun finally reappears.

Disclosure: The items shown here are a mixture of things that I have purchased myself, been gifted to me and PR samples. If you want to check the origin of any particular item, do feel free to ask.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Makeup Colours Edition

I decided to have a go at Yumeko’s Weekly Photo Challenge #6 – Makeup Colours Edition. I really enjoyed both Yumeko and Drivol about the Frivol's posts and I was interested to see how many items I would be able to find for each colour section, especially as I'm pretty boring when it comes to colour! Trying to work out which colour appears most in my makeup collection was enlightening too. Although it's probably taupe if you count my endless eyeshadows, I wanted to look for a colour which was repeated across all of my colour cosmetic products.

1. Black

Eyeshadows and Pigments: MAC Carbon, Illamasqua Pure Pigment in Zeitgeist* and Eyeshadow in Obsidian*.
Pencil and Liners: Rouge Bunny Rouge Raven Glaze Lacquer Liner, Hourglass Script and Kevyn Aucoin Basic Black Pencil*.
Mascara: Illamasqua Masquara in Raven

2. Brown

This is just a sample of my brown colours as I'm certain I've missed a quite a few eyeshadows and liners when I was rummaging around.

Eyeshadows: Lancôme Blondette Fatale palette*, L'Oreal Color Infallible in Endless Chocolate, MAC Charcoal Brown, MAC Sable, Rouge Bunny Rouge Bejewelled Skylark and Blackpepper Jay, Le Metier de Beaute Brocade from the Silk Road Kaleidoscope* and Ellis Faas Creamy Eyes in E105.
Liners: Julie Hewett gel liner in Tessa, Rouge Bunny Rouge Long-lasting Pencil in Lola and Ben Nye Pencil in Espresso
Contour Powder: MAC Strada
Lip Products: Lise Watier gloss in Cafe Frost and YSL Rouge Volupte in Spicy Pink
Nail Polish: Chanel Khaki Rose

3. White

Highlighters: MAC Strobe Liquid Lotion*, Rouge Bunny Rouge Eyes Wide Open highlighter pencil* and Vapour Trick Stick*.
Eyeshadows: White from the Suqqu Lilac Allure Palette and L'Oreal Color Infallible in Time Resist White.
Nail Polish: Lancôme Vernis in Love in Pure Narcisse (020M)*

4. Orange [Colour of the Year according to Sephora]

Orange was especially hard to find in my collection so I hope you'll forgive the fact that most of these are more coral than orange. Three of the items are from the L'Oreal Miss Candy collection* which are due for review.

Blushers: Illamasqua Rude Cream Blusher, Rouge Bunny Rouge Blush Wand in Manet* and Illamasqua Emerge Cream Pigment*.
Nail Polish: BECCA Tangerine Dreams, L'Oreal #304 Spicy Orange* and #305 Dating Coral*
Lipgloss: L'Oreal Glam Shine in #703 Tart Lollipop*

5. Purple: The most popular color amongst your makeup collection

Like brown, this is only a selection of my purples (and plums). Not all these colours suit me but I love purple and if I'm ever drawn to colour it's usually purple.

Eyeshadows: NARS Melusine duo*, Hourglass Exhibition duo, Sue Devitt Eyeshadow in Nordland, Rouge Bunny Rouge Wishing for Wings, MAC Fig. 1, Purple Haze, Trax, Stars N' Rockets, Vibrant Grape and Beautiful Iris.
Pencils and Liners: YSL Waterproof liner in #5 Shimmering Burgundy, Laura Mercier Caviar Stick in Amethyst, Sue Devitt Eye Intensifier Pencil in Zaire and Lise Watier 24hrs Glam Eyeliner in Prune.
Lip Products: NARS Bougainville lipgloss*, Inglot Lip Paint in #59, W3LL People Nudist Lip Shine #2*, Lancôme Violette Coquette* and MAC Up The Amp.
Blusher: NARS Sin
Nail Polish: Chanel Paradoxal and W7 Metallic Venus.

Disclosure: Items marked with an asterisk were received as PR samples.

L'Oreal Super Liner Luminizer in Black Amethyst

I picked this up when I bought my last couple of Couleur Infalliable eyeshadows. I have already own the  Super Liner in sparkly black and I find that once you remember that you must shake it before you apply, these work very well. The first time I used Black Amethyst, I thought it might be a dupe for Illamasqua's precision liner in Havoc but side by side, the difference are clear. Havoc is more of an ox blood shade, whereas Black Amethyst is more obviously purple. Black Amethyst also has a gorgeous metallic shimmer, it's subtle and only visible at certain angles but it prevents the colour from looking flat.

The liner goes on easily, I find it has a nice consistency and I get on well with the felt stick style applicator. The tip is soft and doesn't splinter the colour during application. I'm quite used to applying liner so I'm not sure how easy this applicator is to use as a novice. I noticed when washing off the swatches that although L'Oreal didn't move with water alone, it washes away quite easily with soap and water whereas the Illamasqua liner requires eye makeup remover to be removed. Something else I noticed is that, once dry, the L'Oreal seemed more flexible than the Illamasqua which split easily as you can see in the swatch below.

Although handy for avoiding theft, the security tags really make a sticky mess of products!

I like Black Amethyst very much. This particular shade is marketed for those with hazel eyes. My eyes aren't hazel but I much preferred this shade to the navy blue shade being offered for blue eyes. I had a look on the Boots website and there are three shades of the Luminizer Super Liners. The colour that I haven't seen in person is the one designed for green eyes which appears to be green from the online swatch. I find the choice of blue for blue eyes and green for green eyes rather unusual as I makeup artists often recommend that you use a colour from the opposite side of the colour wheel to your eye colour. Personally, I would recommend choosing based on the colour that you like rather than the one you're 'supposed' to get.

Top: Black Amethyst, Bottom: Illamasqua Havoc - still wet at the point

Top: Black Amethyst, Bottom: Illamasqua Havoc

As an aside, whilst I was browsing the Boots website in search of the Super Liners, I spotted that the Couleur Infallible eyeshadows are currently reduced in price from £6.99 to £3.99. I'd highly recommend giving them a try if you haven't already, especially at such a great price. Of course, I'm not looking myself, no sir. I have my eyeshadow no buy to think about! *weeps silently*

Couleur Infallible FOTD

Here are some pictures of my new L'Oreal Coleur Infallible colours applied. My apologies in advance for both the overly serious face (it was the best picture despite the expression) and the lack of blending. I slapped this on in a bit of a rush!

Sahara Treasure is more gold than I was expecting. Although it looks a little taupe-y in the pot, on my lid it's quite a bright gold. Fortunately it's not too yellow based. Time Resist White is quite stark and I wouldn't wear it like this to go out. I'll have to play with it a little more to work out how best to use it. Hopefully this will give you a better idea of how the colours look 'in action'.

I have included a breakdown of the rest of the makeup I used below.

Face
Primed with Alaya Radiance Face oil*
Max Factor Second Skin*
YSL Touche Eclat* (review to come)
Shu Uemura brow pencil
NARS Laguna

Eyes
L'Oreal Couleur Infallible Sahara Treasure over the mobile lid
RBR Caress of Mink on the outer corner and into the crease
L'Oreal Couleur Infallible Time Resist White on the inner corner of the lid
RBR Raven Glaze Laquer Liner
MUFE Smoky Lash mascara

Lips
RBR Sweet Excess Glassy Gloss in Trifle Rich


*PR Samples. The links are provided for information only.

L'Oreal Couleur Infallible in Sahara Treasure and Time Resist White

I spent today getting very frustrated at technology. It's been a long time since I've encountered software that doesn't have a Mac-compatible version. So, in order to upgrade the software on my phone I had to pull out the old Windows laptop. A thoroughly painful experience considering the internet on the phone is faster than the laptop. Don't anyone dare utter the words iPhone right now!

With the computer versus human battle in the day and the evening spent wrapping presents, it's left very little time for blogging. However, I did manage to take some pictures of my most recent purchases.

Sahara Treasure

Time Resist White

With flash

I popped into Superdrug yesterday on a mission to buy the L'Oreal Couleur Infallible eyeshadow in Sahara Treasure (021). As they had a 3 for 2 offer on L'Oreal products I thought it would be rude not to take advantage. As well as Sahara Treasure, I bought the Couleur Infallible eyeshadow in Time Resist White (001) and the Superliner for Hazel Eyes*. I have used both formulas before. You can read my post about the (then named) Color Infallible eyeshadows in Burning Black and Endless Chocolate here.

L-R: Endless Chocolate, Sahara Treasure and Time Resist White

L-R: Time Resist White, Sahara Treasure and Endless Chocolate

I haven't had opportunity to apply them yet but both Sahara Treasure and Time Resist White are as pigmented when swatched as the Endless Chocolate. They have the same velvety cream/powder hybrid texture as my other shades too. Sahara Treasure is a gorgeous golden shimmery taupe colour and I can't wait to try this one on my lids tomorrow. Time Resist White is a bit of a gamble for me, as I'm not a big user of frosty whites. In the pot this looks more like an ivory cream than pure white and I hope it looks more like that on my eyes than the swatch would suggest. I shall reserve judgement until I've had a play. I will try and post a picture of how the colours look when applied in the next couple of days.

*Yes, I know my eyes aren't hazel but the purple grabbed me more than the navy blue for blue eyes. I may even have done a little eyebrow raise at blue liner for blue eyes....

Hair Dye Before and After

Don't worry, it turned out well, so there's no upset this time round. I used Clairol Nice'n Easy in the original formula. Although I didn't like their foam version, I still rate their regular, permanent hair dye. I had wanted to put in some highlights/lighter sections but none of these were recommended to use on freshly dyed hair and I desperately needed to cover up my grey roots. Although my hair looked a little uneven from stripping the colour and the Kebelo treatment (this also pulls out colour), I actually quite liked the lighter, golden tones I was left with. I picked up Medium Golden Brown (#117) to hopefully keep this warmth.

BEFORE

The before pictures show exactly how long it's been since I properly coloured my hair. I used a semi-permanent a couple of months ago but the grey hairs re-appeared within a week. You can see my hair is quite peppered. I also noticed I'm losing skin elasticity on my neck this morning, ah the joys of ageing!

AFTER

With flash

I followed the instructions, including leaving it on longer to cover stubborn greys. Mine are definitely resistant to colouring, so I left the dye on for around 40 minutes. I'm pleased with how it's turned out. It is darker than it was pre-colouring but not overly so and it has covered my grey hairs well. As ever with the Nice'n Easy dye, it felt a bit dry as I rinsed the colour away but felt lovely and soft once I'd used the after-care conditioner.

I'm still interested in putting some lighter strands through my hair. There are a number of different kits I've seen, including those specifically designed for darker brown hair but I've no idea which are good and which have 'orange potential'. I toyed with the Garnier Nutrisse highlighting kit but #4 looked like a very unnatural brassy colour on the packet. I wondered whether using a permanent hair dye in a dark blonde shade was worth a try instead of straight peroxide? I know that I really ought to just go to a salon, I do have some serious trust issues with hairdressers though as you have probably gathered! Which reminds me, it's coming round to my twice yearly visit to the hairdressers. This time there's going to a strict, no layers policy.

As an aside, I'm wearing L'Oreal Burning Black today. I've included the picture below to let you see how it looks applied. This colour was the reverse of Endless Chocolate in terms of application and went on better with fingers than a brush.

L'Oreal Endless Chocolate Comparison

When I initially picked up L'Oreal Endless Chocolate I thought it might be similar to Rouge Bunny Rouge Bejewelled Skylark. A quick side by side comparison quickly dispelled that idea. Bejewelled Skylark is much richer and warmer in tone. It makes Endless Chocolate appear almost Khaki in comparison. Equally, MAC Sable has a totally different undertone and pulls more pinky bronze. It was very interesting to see how different these browns are when compared.

Top - Sable, Bottom left - Endless Chocolate, Bottom right - Bejewelled Skylark

Top - Sable, Bottom left - Endless Chocolate, Bottom right - Bejewelled Skylark

L-R: Endless Chocolate, RBR Bejewelled Skylark and MAC Sable

L-R: Endless Chocolate, RBR Bejewelled Skylark and MAC Sable

These are all shimmery eyeshadows. I find both Bejewelled Skylark and Endless Chocolate relatively easy to wear. Bejewelled Skylark in particular is a beautiful colour. Sable is an eyeshadow that I very rarely reach for as I don't think it works with my skin tone. I'm tempted to try it again though to see if I was unfair in this judgement.

Which colour appeals to you most of these three colours? Do you have a favourite shimmery brown eyeshadow in your collection?