Beauty Spotlight 23/07/11 and a Catch Up

There's been lots of interesting things going on at Modesty HQ this week. I've recovered from the shocking face swelling episode, mostly stuck to the diet and had a visit from my parents. There's been a fair bit going on in the beauty department too!

I rediscovered my neglected MAC Dirty Greaspaint stick and I'm reminded that oldies can be goodies too.

I managed to get my hands on two Kevyn Aucoin books to further my cosmetics education.

My lovely sampler set from For Strange women arrived. I can report that Decadence & Debauchery is just as lovely as Londonmakeupgirl promised.

I also have some new pretties from Le Metier de Beaute* to review...

and I finally caved and made a Hakuhodo brush order. Phew!


Let's have a look now at what my Beauty Spotlight friends have been up to...


This week, the Beauty Spotlight Team shines the light on Le Metier de Beaute, helps us get our glow on, keeps us smelling great and has some awesome beauty goodies to giveaway!

Get your glow on! Pammy Blogs Beauty shares her top self-tanning tips & tricks.

Over at Lipstick Musings, Shannon's got a sweet tooth...and she's craving more of Laura Mercier's Luster Eye Shadow in Chocolate!

Visionary Beauty checks out the Mediterranean inspired Penelope Kaleidoscope from Le Metier de Beaute.

This week Modesty Brown goes nude with Kevyn Aucoin's Expert Lip Tint in ThelmaDora.

Cindy over at Prime Beauty shows you five must-have pink blushes for a fresh summer sun-kissed glow.

Makeup Merriment shares a great summer eyeshadow, Chanel Ombre d'Eau eyeshadow in Delta, with us. Check your stash to see if you have this too.

Find out what animal Marcia from Beauty Info Zone compares Napoleon Perdis lipsticks to and see if this is something that you do too.

Styrch at Pretty in Dayton gets frisky with her little bottle of LP No. 9 for Women by Penhaligons, LTD.

Perilously Pale gives us sneak peek swatches and a review of the Le Metier de Beaute Silk Road Kaleidoscope Eye Kit from the upcoming Fall/Winter 2011 Collection.

The nut jobs at Beauty Crazed have obviously been addled by the heat and are giving away a crazy amount of makeup - go enter before they come to their senses!

Londonmakeupgirl got a sneak peek at what you can expect to see from Selfridges for Holiday 2011. There's another beauty advent calendar, and some beautiful palettes from Bobbi Brown and Suqqu. Have a look here: Selfridges Christmas in July.

Paula, from Older Girl Beauty, wants to tell you about the Clarisonic Deep Pore Cleansing brush head and give one of them to you (*and your BFF!). She'll even throw in a Mia to use it with, too!

Zuzu's Petals at Everyday Beauty reevaluates what beauty represents for her and wonders what it means to you and how your views have evolved over the years.


*PR Samples

Madame Bovery Confesses

This week we have Emma of Emma Bovery Beauty confessing for us. No cutting quips today but Aunty Brown is running short of victims....sorry, sorry I mean volunteers. If you're keen to cleanse your soul and share your terrible beauty crimes, do feel free to email. Don't make me send Aunty Brown out to get you!!

Confession is good for the soul, go ahead and unburden yourself! I promise I won’t judge.  

I have a few confessions I need to get off my chest. Big deep breath, here we go.

    •    I cannot get into a nail polish obsession. While for some this may be a good thing, it frustrates me that I cannot swoon over the varnishes the nail girls covet. I paint my nails and look once before they chip, and then I’m driven to madness at the sight of them. Too much stress for this wee blogger!

    •    Often, I’ll be lemming an item hard and go to great lengths to obtain it, and once it joins my cosmetic family it falls by the wayside for something newer, or an old favourite. Only later, much later, does it get picked up to be loved and cherished. Not a total waste, but still an annoyance of mine!

    •    I’ve never been a fan of eyeliner- blame it on my teen years of goth-rimmed eyes, but I just don’t like myself when I’m heavily eyelined. When the professionals do it, I look great, but on my own I think myself silly and flashbacks to the goth days ensue. *shudder* I have just gotten into liquid liner on the top lash line, though, and I love it!

    •    I find it hard to stick to an exact routine with skincare- forever chopping and changing, I never stick with a set of products long enough to see the benefits they promise (except those PR send me to blog about, which I do stick to for review purposes, naturally!)

    •    I don’t hate a clumpy lash look, and I don’t always wear sunscreen. I feel ashamed!
 



There, don’t you feel better now? 


Aunty Brown has a few more questions though; it’s true that I’m the nosy type.

When was the last time you visited the hairdresser?
A lonnnng time ago *looks at split ends* I need a trim, but can’t be bothered heading to the hairdresser and waiting around! I’m bad with appointments, too, which sucks.

Which bit of beauty trickery couldn’t you live without?
I don’t partake in too much trickery; I hardly fake tan and can’t get the hang of falsies. The most trickery I get up to that works out is my everyday foundation- hardly anyone knows how bad my skin is underneath. My man looks on in wonderment as I paint my canvas, I love it. (NB: he loves the bad skin, as well as the good :D).

You’ve overslept and have 5 minutes to get out of the house. Are you going out with dirty hair or no makeup?
Dirty hair all the way! A high pony or messy bun done in a toilet cubicle can work wonders, but I never go out without a bit of foundy and blush- it makes me feel like a winner!

Which trend still makes you cringe?
I cannot stand frosty lipstick! Show me a stunner with it on that doesn’t look like she’s from the 90’s and I will be happily proven wrong. Lilac frosties do my head in, they really do. I know a girl who never wears makeup, lest she be going out and then she slaps on foundation that is at least 4 times too dark for her, some purple glitter smushed round her eyes and the frostiest lilac lippy you’ll ever see. Gah! She is lovely though, so I guess looks don’t always matter ;).

Let's leave the lilac to Lady Gaga please.

Image credit: www.graziadaily.co.uk

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Thanks Emma! If you would like to take a turn and unburden yourself in the Friday Confessional you can email me at modestybrown@googlemail.com. It's open to everyone: if you have something to confess, I'm happy to hear it!

Kevyn Aucoin Lipstick in ThelmaDora

I received the Kevyn Aucoin Expert Lip Tint in Thelma Dora several weeks ago for review. When I first looked at it, I thought hmm....a nude lipstick, is it really going to be for me? I have to concede that it's rather grown on me.

Thelma Dora is a peachy beige shade full of golden shimmer. The shimmer isn't quite at the level of frost. I've struggled to get the camera to pick up the gold in the hand swatch but it's a little more visible in the lip swatch. Looking at a swatch on my hand right now there's something about it that reminds me of the Orgasm Illuminator.

The coverage is nice and opaque and the lipstick feels creamy and very comfortable to wear. It's creamy and moisturising rather than slippy like a Rouge Volupte. It's similar in feel to my favourite Rouge Bunny Rouge lipstick but not quite as moisturising. It's long lasting too. My only gripe is that although the packaging is ok, I might have expected something less plastic-y for a premium price lipstick.

From the top going clockwise - Revlon Blush, MAC Barely Lit and KA ThelmaDora

From the top going clockwise - MAC Barely Lit, KA ThelmaDora and Revlon Blush

I wondered if ThelmaDora it might be similar in colour to MAC Barely Lit but in comparison, Barely Lit is more golden beige. Revlon Colorburst lipstick in Blush is also similar but Blush is darker and pulls more mauve when compared to ThelmaDora.

I've enjoyed wearing this colour and it makes a nice change from my typical rosy pinks. I think this would be a good colour choice if you're after a polished nude without straying in to freshly exhumed territory (you know what I mean, right?). I will post a picture showing the colour in a face of the day very soon so that you can see how it looks in the context of my full face.

The Expert Lip Tints are available from Mise Beauty for those in the UK and Ireland and cost £20. Mise Beauty also ship Internationally, you can see a complete list of the European Countries that they send to here.


Disclosure: Product received without cost. As ever there are no affiliate links in this post.

BECCA Tangerine Dreams Nail Polish

BECCA Tangerine Dreams nail colour was released with the Halcyon Days collection along with two other colours, Summerdaze which Helen reviewed for me and Dancing Barefoot. Tangerine Dreams is soft coral shade, I see something of the salmon pink about this colour too. It has a super glossy finish: in the pictures below I am wearing two coats with no top coat. It is slightly translucent as the free nail edge is visible if you look very closely.

I really like the handle on these bottles. The rubberised material makes it easy to open and grip. The brush has a nice size and shape too. I found I had wear with this manicure quite quickly but this was probably an error on my part missing out a top coat. Not to mention the uneven surface of my nails. The colour and finish was a delight to wear though. I think this is a great holiday colour as it looks really nice against tanned skin and it also makes a lovely pedicure shade.

From bottom left, clockwise: Pink Grapefruit, Coralicious, Tangerine Dream, Gamma, Bright Orange.

Thumb - MF Bright Orange, Index - Gamma, Middle - Tangerine Dream, Ring - Coralicious, Pinky - Pink Grapefruit

I compared the colour to a few oranges and corals to put the colour in to context. In the pictures above, you can see the colour compared to Illamasqua Gamma*, Max Factor Bright Orange*, Rimmel Coralicious and 17 Pink Grapefruit. Hopefully you can see from the comparison that Tangerine Dreams is quite a light and muted coral-orange shade.

The Becca nail polishes cost £12 and I bought this particular bottle from Zuneta.


*Both the Max Factor and Illamasqua polishes were PR Samples.

Decléor Aroma White C⁺ Range

I've been using three products from the Decléor Aroma White C⁺ skin care range for a couple of months now and I wanted to share my thoughts on them. I used the Aroma White C⁺ Night Cream for four weeks and used the Aromessence Whiteᵀᴹ Brightening Serum either morning or night as required. After the four weeks, I added the Aroma White C⁺ Extreme Brightening Essence in to my routine.

I've taken some pictures of how my pigmentation spot looks currently. It's very hard to see any changes as my skin has freckled up significantly with all the sunshine, despite my wearing sun protection daily. I'm outside quite a lot of the day with the children so it's hard work avoiding the sun. I'm considering putting on hold the use of any targetted treatments until the Autumn so that I can better judge any changes whilst tacking any new pigmentation that has popped up.

The night cream was pleasant to use. It is lightly fragranced though it's a clean, fresh scent rather than an obvious perfume. It feels rich but not as rich as the Shiseido cream I tried earlier in the year. It felt nice and nourishing as it went on but sometime I would wake and my skin would feel a little parched. I wasn't sure if this was due to the active ingredients or just that it wasn't hydrating enough for my skin.

This is when I would use the Brightening Serum. The Brightening Serum is a treatment oil and instantly reminds me of facials. It has that gorgeous herby smell and it sinks in beautifully. I've not used it consistently enough to comment on the long term brightening effects but this does make my skin look more radiant whenever I use it. I also thought this was a good formula for targetting specific areas of the face as you can apply only to areas of hyperpigmentation if you wish.

The Extreme Brightening Essence was a product that immediately caught my eye when I was investigating the range. The essence is to be used as a four week intensive treatment. There are three vials in the box, each contains a measured dose of what I assume to be freeze-dried Vitamin C (the Vitamin C used in the essence in Ascorbic Acid rather than one of the more stable derivatives). The vials are activated by pressing down on a plunger to release the powder in to solution. Once the powder has dissolved, the essence is active and can be used for 10 days.

The essence itself is somewhere between the feel of a serum and a liquid. At times it left a slight tacky feeling on my skin but that sensation would disappear within a few moments. I would leave a slight pause either side of applying this essence. I would cleanse, leave the skin to dry, then apply the essence and again, I waited a few minutes before applying moisturiser. I took this approach too avoid diluting the concentration of Vitamin C.

Although it has been hard to spot any changes in skin pigmentation whilst using the essence, what I have noticed is a difference to the lines on my forehead. The vertical lines on my forehead have softened and the skin feels noticeably smoother.

On to the cost; the serum costs £49.50, the night cream is £51.50 and the Extreme Essence treatment costs £52.50. The Extreme Essence is exclusive to Harrods and www.decleor.co.uk. I feel I've failed somewhat in terms of testing the efficacy of this range as I've actually seen an increase in pigmentation over the summer. I cannot test the essences again but I am going to return to the night cream and serum in a couple of months time to see if I can see a difference in skin pigmentation. I shall update you around Autumn/Winter time with how I get on.


Disclosure: PR samples.

Konjac Sponge

I was a little sceptical about the benefits of using a sponge for cleansing so I'd initially dismissed the idea of trying a Konjac Sponge. When I learned that they had a baby version I bought one for my children (which I reviewed here). I bought it to help exfoliate their delicate facial skin and after seeing the results, I wanted to give it a try myself.

I was sent the original version to try but there are several different sponges for different skin types. The prices vary slightly according the to the particular variety of sponge. The sponge itself comes in plastic packaging in fully hydrated state. In the hydrated state the sponge is a large dome, with one flat and one shaped surface. I believe the two surfaces have a slightly different texture but to be honest, I can't tell the difference. The sponge feels so soft and squidgy, I find it a real pleasure to rub on my skin and I find I'll spend much longer doing it than I probably need to! It just feels so relaxing! It doesn't feel abrasive at all but it definitely smoothes my skin.

I do not use the sponge to cleanse my skin. I wear too much make-up to feel confident about going without eye make-up remover and cleanser, so I can't really comment on the cleansing abilities. I would not think the sponge could replace a cleanser although you could probably use it on it's own in the morning if you have a thorough evening routine.

My face always feels beautifully soft after using the Konjac Sponge. I find it much nicer and less messy to use than regular physical exfoliators. I really am converted. I think if you have previously dismissed these sponges, I'd encourage you to take a second look. They may not be fancy but they are a real pleasure to use.

This particular sponge was sent to me by www.cocktailcosmetics.co.uk who stock all six varieties of the sponge which range in price from £5.25 to £5.75. 


Disclosure: This item was sent to me without cost. I would have bought one anyway after my success with the baby sponge. I will be happy to buy my next one.

Beauty Spotlight Team: Marcia Shares What's in her Makeup Bag

The Beauty Spotlight Team are opening their treasured makeup bags to share with you. Twice a month our team will be featuring one of our member’s current makeup bags. This week the honours go to Marcia from Beauty Info Zone. If you're interested to find out what she has hiding in that pretty bag, you can find out more here.

In other news, I wanted to say a huge thank you for all the support and comments after my recent blogging ramble post. It actually made me feel a lot better having spoken about how I was feeling. I've put quite a lot of the advice in to practice already. I've managed to sit down and write several posts to schedule. I've also taken and edited a lot of pictures so this should allow me to continue to post whilst I have a little rest. This is good news too for my face which currently looks like that of a post-fight boxer after a spot picking incident gone wrong! Cautionary tale coming soon.....