All the Bases: BECCA Luminous Skin Colour, Concealer and Boudoir Skin Powder

A couple of weeks ago, I had the great privilege to be invited to the BECCA Boutique to meet Rebecca Morrice Williams, founder of the brand. It was a huge thrill and there will be more to come about my time with Rebecca and the collections coming out this year. In this post I want to talk about the base products that I was introduced to that day.

I don't mind admitting that I was really nervous about meeting Rebecca (she's lovely and I shouldn't have been) so by the time we'd finished chatting my face had turned a glorious shade of puce. Fetching! Knowing what a fan I am of concealer, I was offered a shade match which they very kindly turned into a full-on makeover. I had my make-up applied by the lovely BECCA artist that you might have seen in the Zuneta videos.

She applied their Luminous Skin Colour Tinted Moisturiser in Sand all over the face. Then, rather than using their stick foundation, she the applied the Boudoir Skin Mineral Powder Foundation in Desire over the tinted moisturiser. The two products paired together did a fantastic job of covering my extremely high colour whilst remaining natural looking. There was actually no need for concealer but I was matched with Praline concealer as I was keen to give it a try.

Unblended swatch of Luminous Colour in Sand

The swatch blended out

I have been using the three products at home since my visit to the Boutique and have been really impressed with them all. The Luminous Skin Colour tinted moisturiser gives very sheer coverage, I find it enough to even out my skin colour and it gives a nice finish. I also really like the fact that it has a pump dispenser and an SPF of 25. It is worth bearing in mind that I don't have that much to cover on my face blemish wise and my particular issue is uneven colour. This is probably not one to use alone if you normally use a medium to heavy coverage foundation but you can supplement with concealer or foundation in specific areas if required. I have worn the tinted moisturiser on it's own quite a bit but I also like to use with the Boudoir Skin Powder when I want to achieve a more flawless look.

The Boudoir Skin Powder is a pressed mineral powder foundation and I believe it contains soothing ingredients. I apply this with a kabuki style brush concentrating on the forehead nose and chin. It gives a more matte finish than using the tinted moisturiser on it's own but doesn't leave the face looking 'flat'. I find the products combined have a really good staying power. Desire is definitely warmer and a little darker than my skin tone as you can probably see in the product pictures but again this doesn't look strange it just warms my skin a little rather than looking like a miss-match.

L-R: Praline Extra Coverage, Praline Medium Coverage, Luminous Skin in Sand

I'm in love with the concealer. It has two sides, one side is a heavy coverage formula and the other is medium coverage. I've used both sides but find the medium coverage side is sufficient for most areas that I want to conceal. I really like the consistency as it's opaque and sufficiently creamy so that it applies easily without looking cakey but not so much that is moves around. It also doesn't flash white in photographs like some of my concealers.

Praline is a really good colour match for me, although it looks quite yellow on my arm it's perfect on my face. It's particularly good at toning down redness around my nose. I have tried it on my dark undereye circles as well as on blemishes but I personally find it too heavy for that area. The heavy coverage side has been useful for covering the areas of pigmentation above my brow. Rebecca and I talked quite a bit about concealer and this is one of the fundamental pieces of her line. Their concealer comes in 34 shades and I think it would be hard not to find the perfect shade for everyone amongst them.

Boudoir Powder Ingredients

Concealer Ingredients

My experience with the base products really proves that what BECCA want to achieve is totally possible. The brand ethos is to enable ALL women to look flawless regardless of age or ethnicity. My face was transformed from red and shiny to a polished, natural finish and I left the Boutique feeling like a million dollars. It's been just as easy to replicate at home too. I'd highly recommend a visit to the Boutique if you're ever in London. I'd also recommend a look at the newly re-vamped BECCA website. As well as the online store they have a 'Get The Look' section and an 'Ask An Artist' area, which is really handy if you don't have a counter nearby.




Disclosure: I received these products without cost for review purposes. The links I have included are affiliated to anyone and all of the opinions are my own. The red face was all my own too!

ModelCo Fibre Lash Brush on False Lashes

I imagine I'm about the last to hear about this but just in case I'm not, I thought I'd bring it to your attention! ModelCo's Fibrelash Brush on False Lashes is launching exclusively in Boots on 15th June (edited as for some strange reason I put March). The waiting list has already gone live on the Boots website, and I believe there are there around 1000 names on there already after only being open for a couple of days. Call me a sheep but I want in! There's also the added bonus that everyone who adds their name to the waiting list will automatically be entered into a competition to win ModelCo Lash essentials.

As the owner of a pair of puny lashes, false lashes in a tube sound very appealing. I like effect of false lashes but often don't bother because it's a fiddly extra step. I've never fancied going down the route of the lash growth serums so this sounds like a good alternative. The system comes with two tubes of product, an Extension Mascara and the Lash Fibres. You apply a coat of Extension Mascara first, apply a single coat of Lash Fibres then finish with a generous coat of Extension Mascara.

I'm really looking forward to giving this a try. It costs £35 so it's definitely more expensive than regular mascara but if it lives up to the hype, I think it could be well worth it.

Have you already heard about this product? Is it something that appeals to you?

Hair Products: One Love and One......Puzzlement!

I went to an event a couple of weeks ago to learn a bit more about what's new from VO5 and TRESemmé. I'm pretty erratic in my use of styling products so I immediately got busy with my bag of products to try, some with great success and others left me feeling like a bit of an old fuddy duddy!

I instantly fell in love with the VO5 Miracle Concentrate. It's the same principle as Moroccanoil containing Argan oil to condition and repair dry or damaged hair but at a fraction of the cost. Most importantly for me, it doesn't have the same strong scent as Moraccanoil. You apply to damp hair and blow dry as normal. It makes my hair feel so soft and silky. Combined with the Kebelo System treatment I had, this leaves me with lovely swishy hair. You can also use it on dry hair like a serum to tame frizz. It's nice used like that too as all of the product transfers to the hair and doesn't leave a slick on your hands like serums tend to. It's excellent and at under £5, I'd highly recommend giving it a try.

Next comes the fuddy duddy moment. I was rather fascinated by the TRESemmé Sky High Plumping Powder. My hair can tend to get a bit flat at the back and I thought it would be interesting to see if this would give me a bid more body. Well, the answer is a resounding yes but I just cannot get to grips with the texture. It comes as a powder which you sprinkle on the hair, I expected it would make my hair feel dry but instead it felt like I'd back-combed my hair and sprayed it with liquid candyfloss. My hair felt really 'dirty' and I wanted to itch at my scalp all the time. I know this product would be wonderful for an up do as it instantly creates 'grippy' hair  with volume but I couldn't get on with this as a everyday styling product. I think I'm at least 15 years too old to really appreciate it. If you're rocking a Russell Brand style bouff, you're going to love this.

Bottom line: Miracle Concentrate is a huge thumbs up but I'm just too long in the tooth for Plumping Powder!


Disclosure: These products were received as part of an event pack. I will be buying and forcing all of my friends to try the Miracle Concentrate.

The London Brush Company

I mentioned my interest in The London Brush Company brushes a little while ago and was kindly sent a few to try. I wanted to share with you a couple of my favourites.

The brushes shown above are No. 17, the Luxe Socket Blender (top) and No. 18, the Small Luxe Socket Blender (bottom). These brushes are what inititally attracted me to the brand. I really like shape and as someone with relatively small eyes, these are perfect for my needs. I use the large socket blender to do crease work and love the fact that it allows me to be more precise with placement yet doesn't blob on so much I can't blend.

I use the small socket brush to apply eyeshadow densely along the lashline. It's similar in design to the MAC 219 pencil brush as it has a tapered dome shape, but the smaller size allows for more precision and the bristles seems to be better at packing colour on. I found it particularly good for use with dark colours that I've previously found too sheer to make a good liner, such as the dark teal from my Chantecaille Turtles palette. I think this would work well to smudge eyeliner too.

I've included pictures of the brushes compared to some others that I own, to give you a better idea of their size. The larger socket brush is most similar to the Smashbox Definer brush, the difference being that it is more densely packed and the Smashbox brush is more floppy in comparion. The small socket brush is pretty much unique in my collection. It's quite a bit smaller than the MAC 219 and allows for much more precision. It's more rounded at the tip too.

L-R: MAC 226, MAC 219, Small Socket Brush, Luxe Socket Brush, Smashbox Definer brush, GOSH smudger brush

L-R; MAC 219, Luxe Socket Brush, Smashbox Definer Brush

Small socket brush compared to MAC 219

The London Brush Company brushes are handmade in the UK and designed by makeup artist Siân Richards. I believe both of these socket brushes are made from Squirrel hair. The brush hairs feel soft but not overly so, they pick up and hold colour well and have just the right amount of give. I think they use the word springy on the website which I think is an excellent description. They're definitely not scratchy which is a problem I often have with brushes that have the right shape and firmness (MAC 226, I'm looking at you). Price wise, these are around the MAC mark, maybe a little bit more. I think they're well priced for the quality and unique shape.

The London Brush Company brushes are available directly from their website or from www.cocktailcosmetics.co.uk. Both ship Internationally. I can highly recommend browsing the Cocktail Cosmetics website as they stock some amazing (and often hard to source) brands like Julie Hewett, La Femme Cosmetics and OCC.


Disclosure: These brushes were sent to me without cost for consideration for review.

Blogger vs WordPress Ramble

This is a bit off topic I realise but I thought writing about my quandary might help me to make a decision. This way I can get some input from all of you too.

I've been trying to overhaul my blog template to make it look 'nicer', for want of a better word. What I'm after isn't anything fancy, just something simple and elegant without looking stark. So far, I've been unable to customize a template to my satisfaction. I haven't spotted anything on btemplates that looks suitable either. Normally I can find tutorials to help me modify the template in 'Edit HTML' but all the ones I've looked at so far are way beyond my level of understanding. In a lot of cases, I can't actually find the elements or containers they're referring to in the HTML code (if anyone wants to educate me where you're supposed to put a CSS style file, I'm all ears).

Lots of people have recommended moving to WordPress. Certainly they have a huge selection of templates and in terms of design, it appears to be the better choice. There are also a few features in WordPress that I really like. However, I've heard that moving from Blogger to WordPress can be fraught with technical problems, such as followers no longer getting post updates.

I seem to have got myself in a pickle trying to decide what to do. I either stay with Blogger and try to decipher how to design a template I like or I move to WordPress and face the technical difficulties of moving the images and re-directing without mucking up the feed. It seems an awful lot of stress considering I don't want to do anything too fancy with the design. I spotted these blogs in my search for inspiration and this is the kind if look I'm after..

Screen shot from http://www.daydreamlily.com/

Screenshot of http://leflattery.blogspot.com/

Funnily enough both of these are actually published with Blogger, so at least I know what I would like to achieve is possible.

So, I wondered if you had any thoughts? Do you prefer Blogger or WordPress as either a blog author or reader? Have any of you moved successfully? If anyone has any ideas on how to get the sort of design I want whilst staying put let me know!

Thanks for reading x

FOTD with RBR Wishing for Wings

I wore this look a couple of days ago using the RBR Wishing for Wings loose pigment that I showed here. I applied over a base of the Becca Belize pencil to really bring out the mauve colour of the pigment. As loose pigments go I find this one really easy to apply because of the 'wand' applicator.

Wishing for Wings Pigment

Eyes
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Mauve end of BECCA Belize pencil blended on the mobile lid
RBR Wishing with Wings pigment on the inner 2/3 of the mobile lid
Darker side of NARS Brousse duo on outer 1/3 of the lid and into crease
Violet Black end of the BECCA Belize pencil to line
RBR Eyes Wide Open Highlighter pencil to highlight brow and inner corner
Hourglass Film Noir mascara
Healthspan Nurture Illuminating touch concealer on undereyes

Face
RBR tinted moisturiser
BECCA concealer in Praline on blemishes
RBR Delicata blusher
NARS Sin blusher

Lips
RBR Irreverence

Botanics Soothing Cleansing Balm

I tried this after hearing a few product raves. I'd been after a balm cleanser for a while and this sounded like a good, inexpensive introduction. The packaging is nice and simple, it smells delicious but I haven't been able to get on with it at all.

The product is a solid balm which melts with the warmth of the skin. I find it easy enough to massage in but it is extremely oily. It doesn't emulsify with water and I find it impossible to wash it off without leaving a heavy amount of oil residue on the skin. I use a dampened muslin cloth (not the one that comes with it) to wash it off but even the texture of the cloth is not enough to remove the oil.

I don't feel at all happy with leaving this amount of oil on my skin. It's entirely possible that this wouldn't clog the pores but I do worry about that possibility. Whenever I've used it, I've ended up washing my skin with a foaming face wash afterwards, which seems to defeat using the balm cleanser in the first place.

I do wonder whether this would work better for different skin types. The residual oil may work well or not be detectable on drier skins. Sadly for me this hasn't been a good buy. It's a reasonable price, smells lovely but as it doesn't wash off well, it's definitely a thumbs down for me.