Current Favourites

I haven't done a proper favourites post in a very long time, probably because my favourites don't tend to change all that much. Both the RBR Murmurings lipstick and GOSH Truly Brown liner have been mentioned so many times on here, that I fear you may all get fed up with me banging on about them. At the moment I'm in a bit of a makeup funk and keep forgetting to put any on. I'm not entirely sure what's the matter with me, to (mis) quote an online friend, I think the cheese has fallen off my cracker somewhat. Whilst I've been having my little makeup moody, I've become quite reliant on the items below to put on a face without having to put any thought into it.

From top left, clockwise: RBR Gracilis blusher, NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base, RBR Time Defying Foundation in Linen Cream, Lancome La Vie est Belle, Ellis Faas S202 concealer, GOSH Truly Brown eyeliner, RBR Murmurings, RBR Blusher Brush and NARS Smudge Brush (#15).

RBR Gracilis blusher* - this is a fairly recent addition to my collection but it's a colour I've been interested for a while. I worried that it might be too cool or pale for me based on swatch research but it's actually the perfect flush of pink. Although I tend to gravitate to more beige pinks, I find Gracilis is very good at instantly brightening my face and making me look less miserable! I have taken some comparison swatches which I will share in another post.

NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base - I repurchased Too Faced Shadow Insurance several months ago and I'm not sure whether the formula has changed but I found the new tube just didn't work for me. The formula feels too wet and it didn't prevent creasing. I decided to give the NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base a try based on both Visionary Beauty and Musing on Beauty's recommendation. Because I've not been wearing eyeshadow everyday, I haven't put it through it's paces sufficiently for a review but I have been very pleased with it so far.

RBR Time Defying Foundation in Linen Cream* - I'm close to finishing this sample pot of foundation and I have been reaching for it every time I do my face, instead of my usual tinted moisturisers. It has a heavier coverage than I normally wear but you can still my freckles so I wouldn't personally describe it as full coverage. Despite how it looks in the pot, this foundation is a touch lighter and pinker than the skin on my face but I think the depth of colour matches my neck better than my other bases. Particularly as my skin is at its palest at the moment.

I find the finish of this foundation is totally dependent on how my skin feels when I apply it. If I apply to primed or dry (i.e. not pre-moisturised) skin, it gives as semi-matte finish and has a satin-y feel to the touch. However, if I apply to skin that has a film of moisturiser, I find I get a more dewy finish and I do experience a bit of oil break-through on my T-zone later in the day. Unlike the Milk Aquarelle foundation, the Time Defying Foundation doesn't settle into my pores

Ellis Faas S202 concealer - I really like using this for concealing my undereye area and the redness around my nose and I find the coverage lasts quite well. Unlike some of the other Ellis Faas pens, it's not hard to prime. Asthetically speaking, the splaying of the brush bristles is rather annoying.

GOSH Truly Brown Velvet Touch eyeliner and NARS Smudge Brush (#15) - I've put these two items together as my favourite thing to do at the moment is apply the liner in a heavy line and then smudge with the NARS brush. I really like the definition it gives to my lash line. The NARS brush is firm enough to smudge well but the hairs are soft enough not to irritate my sensitive eyes.

RBR Murmurings sheer lipstick - I've said plenty about this lipstick before so I won't repeat myself except to say that I love this lipstick for both the colour and the moisturising feel. It's perfect for this time of year.
 
Lancome La Vie est Belle Perfume* - I love the smell of this Lancome fragrance. It has a sweet, slightly gourmand note to it and wearing it always cheers me up.

Lanolips Lip Ointment in Rose - On days when I haven't bothered with any makeup, I wear Rose to keep my lips moisturised. It doesn't add any colour to my lips particularly but it does give them a nice sophisticated shine.

a design Flat Topped Foundation Brush* - Although I still frequently apply foundation and tinted moisturiser with my fingers, I find buffing in foundation with this brush makes for a speedy application. It also gives a polished finish. The only negative is washing it can be quite a chore.

Left to right: Ellis Faas S202, RBR TD Foundation in Linen Cream, GOSH Truly Brown, RBR Murmurings and RBR Gracilis

Here's how it all looks applied. I did add a touch of Burberry Rosewood eyeshadow to the mobile lid but the hooding of my lids has obscured this.

What products do you turn to when you're in a makeup funk?

* Press samples are indicated with an asterisk

Messy Smoky Eye Look

I actually wore this makeup look several weeks ago for a dinner party but forgot to take a picture at the time. I decided to repeat it for a face of the day post as I was pleased with the result and it was quite quick and easy to apply. I took my inspiration from this Lisa Eldridge tutorial but instead of a cream eyeshadow, I used my Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill eyeshadow in #4 which is a cream/powder hybrid.

When I did this look originally, I used Illamasqua Skin Base foundation. I only have a small sample tube of the Illamasqua Skin Base and I wasn't particularly taken with the formula when I first tried it. However, it's the only full coverage foundation that I own so I use it whenever I want a heavier coverage and I must admit that I've warmed to it a lot. You only need a small amount otherwise it looks cakey and I find it looks best buffed into the skin using a dense kabuki-type brush. Instead of Skin Base, today I used a sample pot of the new Rouge Bunny Rouge Time Defying foundation.

Face
Vapour Soft Focus Skin Perfector*
Rouge Bunny Rouge Skin Sanctuary Time Defying foundation in Linen Cream*
Ellis Faas Concealer in S202
Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage Concealer in SC-3 on blemishes
Brows freshly dyed with Eylure Dylash kit in Dark Brown
MAC Strada blusher to contour
Rouge Bunny Rouge blusher in Gracilis*
A tiny bit of Rouge Bunny Rouge Sea of Tranquility on the tops of cheek bones

Eyes
Kevyn Aucoin eye pencil in Basic Black*
Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill in #4 (Pulp Fiction)
Navy aqua cream from the MUFE Black Tango palette layered in the centre of the mobile lid
Maybelline The Falsies Flared mascara

Lips
Rouge Bunny Rouge Irreverence

I wanted to finish off with a few random brush thoughts. I used my MAC 217 to apply the Eyes to Kill eyeshadow, just as Lisa Eldrige demonstrates in her video. I was surprised how well the 217 applies this kind of product, I typically apply with my fingers but I've never been entirely happy with this. I will definitely use the 217 in future. I've been using my new Laura Mercier Eye Finishing brush to buff in concealer which it does really well, one of these days I will get round to using it with eyeshadows as I had intended.

Now this is probably a rather odd brush confession. I have been using my tiny Louise Young eyeliner brush to apply Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage concealer. I've hardly used the Secret Camouflage since I bought it two years ago, as I've always thought the formula looked too dry and obvious. After watching Lisa use it in her videos, I decided to give it a try using a small brush. Unfortunately, all of my concealer brushes are too big for this kind of spot application, hence the misuse of the liner brush. Using a different tool has definitely changed my opinion of Secret Camouflage and I intend to buy a dedicated pinpoint concealer brush to use with it in future.

* Items indicated with asterisk were received without cost for review purposes

Christmas Face of the Day

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and you're looking forward to the New Year. I thought I would share the makeup I wore on Christmas day. I used one of the lipsticks from the Liu palette that I showed you the other day as the basis for my look. Initially, I applied the colour on it's own but I went back and added a bit of extra festive sparkle with Butter London lipgloss in Chancer. After lunch (and a glass of wine), I swapped to the more easy to maintain Ellis Faas L303.

Face
BECCA Luminous Skin Colour in Sand*
Ellis Faas Concealer in S202 on undereyes and around nose
Shu Uemura Brow Pencil (H9) in Seal Brown
Rouge Bunny Rouge Delicata blusher

Eyes
Ellis Faas E105 cream eyeshadow
Kevyn Aucoin eye pencil in Basic Black* smudged
Maybelline The Falsies Flared mascara

Lips
LMdB Dualistic lip liner in Rose*, applied all over the lips
The darker of the two lip colours from the Guerlain Liu palette*

As I mentioned, I went back and added a bit of Butter London lip gloss in Chancer* and you can see how this looked below.

* PR samples are indicated with an asterisk

Concealers: ArtDeco Camouflage Cream vs Perricone No Concealer Concealer

I've mentioned before how important concealer is in my routine. Although Miss MB is two and a half now, she still wakes in the night (curses) so undereye concealer is an essential. I've tried quite a few now and you can find my previous underye concealer comparison here. I have two in particular that I want to review today: the ArtDeco Camouflage Cream in Neutralising Yellow and Perricone MD No Concealer Concealer. I have also included swatches of Ellis Faas Concealer in S202, W3LL People Narcissist Stick in 01 and RMS Beauty "Un"Cover-up in 11.

From top, clockwise: Ellis Faas S202, Perricone NCC, ArtDeco Neutralising Yellow, RMS Beauty "Un"Cover-up 11 and W3LL People Narcissist 01.

The ArtDeco Camouflage Cream was sent to me by Tender Loving Skincare. This comes in a magnetic pan (which is approximately twice the size of the eyeshadow pans, for reference) and costs £8.50 for 4.5g. The cream is quite densely pigments and provides medium to heavy coverage. If you are applying this to the undereye area, you need to ensure you've prepped with eye cream first. In this case, I applied Clinique's Even Better Eyes Dark Circle Corrector which does a reasonable job of knocking back my discolouration and provides a smooth base.

Neutralising Yellow is very pale yellowy cream colour and is good for correcting purple and blue tones. I realised when I started testing it that my undereye shadows are often quite red and I find Neutralising Yellow doesn't counteract my discolouration particularly well. It's also too light for me to use on it's own as an undereye concealer but of course you can layer this with another concealer, Bobbi Brown style, to correct and then match your skin tone. The camouflage creams do come in several other correcting shades and I suspect that Summer Apricot might be a better corrector for me. On the plus side, the camouflage creams do offer very good coverage and a little goes a long way. I haven't noticed creasing when using this either.

I have already mentioned the Perricone No Concealer Concealer SPF35 (NCC) several times and it is my favourite undereye concealer at the moment. It's quite peachy toned and seems to work particularly well on my discolouration. This is at the other end of the price spectrum to the ArtDeco, costing £37 for 9ml. However, you really need only the tiniest amount (much less than a full pump) so 9mls is going to last a very long time. The NCC does have skin care benefits as well as providing coverage and I do feel it has improved the texture of my undereye area.

Swatches of Perricone NCC on a medium skin tone. Left - blended (yes, it's tricky to spot it), Right - unblended

My only reservations about NCC were about how universal a single 'shade' would be. Because I am a terrible Mum, I decided to use my boys as guinea pigs, as they both have a different skin colour to me. I found it was a good match for Son1 who has quite honey-tan skin. In his words 'why does it disappear Mummy?' when I blended it in. Son2 is quite porcelain skinned and when I tried to blend it on his arm, it left a visible orange patch. So, I would guess that this would be best suited to those in the range fair to medium. I will be sending a sample of this to a friend for a second opinion.

Naked apart from the Clinique Even Better Eyes

L - Artdeco Camouflage cream in Neutralising Yellow, R - Perricone No Concealer Concealer

My apologies for the bare, scary face and messy brows, but I think the series of pictures serve to demonstrate the efficacy of the concealers well. The ArtDeco certainly brightens up the undereye area but it is too light on it's own. The No Concealer Concealer provides very natural looking coverage and disguises the dark circles without really looking like I'm wearing anything. Those who are used to more opaque coverage may consider the NCC too sheer.

Comparison swatches from left to right: Perricone No Concealer Concealer, ArtDeco Camouflage Cream in Neutralising Yellow, RMS Beauty "Un"Cover-up 11, W3LL People Narcissist 01 and Ellis Faas S202.

Disclosure: The ArtDeco Camouflage Cream, Perricone No Concealer Concealer and Clinique Even Better Eyes Dark Circle Corrector were sent to me without cost for review purposes. The other concealers shown here were purchased by me.

A Little Jubilee Makeup Silliness

I accompanied Small Person #2 to the school Diamond Jubilee party this afternoon. I'd had a glimpse of the bunting earlier in the day and couldn't resist going with a little red, white and blue theme. Well I guess it was more red, cream and blue unless you count my white hairs! Anyway...

I wouldn't normally go out of the house with shimmery blue eyeliner and red lips but no one batted an eyelid. Some of the children had full union jacks painted on their faces, so I figured I'd have to be going some to raise eyebrows. On my fingers, I went for alternating blue and red. I'm obviously not on trend as I don't own any white nail polish.

Here are my reds and blues. The red nail polish is Lancôme Miss Coquelicot* from the Vernis in Love collection and the blue is YSL Moonlight Blue. The eyeliner is MAC Petrol Blue Pearlglide  liner and the lipstick is Ellis Faas Glazed Lips in L303.

There are no proper close ups of my nails as they were done quickly before I went out and anyone with children knows that wet nails are an open invite to a series of calamitous polish smudging events. It also reminded me that I need another fast drying top coat.

Are you planning any Jubilee celebrations over the weekend?

*PR Sample

Ellis Faas Glazed Lips in L303

In the interests of avoiding eyeshadow and nail polish purchases, I turned my attention to lipsticks once again. Although I do have issues with the Ellis Faas packaging, I find the lip pens are much less faffy than the eye products. The consistency of the lip products certainly isn't as prone to clogging.

When searching for swatches of Ellis Faas lip colours, L303 caught my attention. I rather like a sheer red and when I spotted Everyday Beauty's review, I knew it would be a good choice. We certainly have quite similar tastes when it comes to makeup.  

L303 is a Glazed Lip formula and it has a transparent glossy quality. It does have a good level of pigmentation but still allows some of my natural lip colour to come through. The texture is very comfortable to wear: it has a balmy feel with no hint of stickiness. Although it feels moisturising, I can't decide if it hydrates my lips but I know it definitely doesn't dry my lips. As you might expect from a sheer colour, it does require topping up but the balmy feeling is long lasting. I like that it has an even fade, changing from a glossy colour to a nice stain and it's an easy way to wear red if you're not in the mood for high maintenance.

This is a berried red colour, strawberry is probably the closest description. I thought it would be interesting to compare it to a couple of similar colours. The Kevyn Aucoin Aquarouge is a deeper more berried shade than L303 and Illamasqua Fume seems more tomato red in comparison.

Eye, eye!

My apologies for winking at you. I'm not getting fresh but my choice was either wink or show you the huge brow furrows I get when squinting into the sun. A no-brainer really!

I've been really pleased with this purchase and I expect to get a lot of use out of L303. I'm quite tempted to buy the other Ellis Faas lip colour I was interested in, L104, but I've never tried the sponge applicators pens before. If anyone has tried them and wants to share their thoughts, I would really appreciate it.

The Ellis Faas Glazed Lip pens cost £21 and I bought mine from www.misebeauty.com. 

Ellis Faas Creamy Eyes E105 (Revisited)

I was inspired to pull out my Ellis Faas Creamy Eyes in E105 after watching this video by Sam of Pixiwoo. The lights eye colour that Sam used is one that I have often admired but I thought it would be useful to remind myself of the struggle I've had with E105 before I made another purchase. So, on Sunday night I got out my E105 pen and prepared to get it back into working order!

When I took the pen out I found the brush tip had gone stiff. Knowing how tricky it can be to prime, I thought it would be worthwhile cleaning the brush beforehand. I used an eye makeup remover wipe to remove all the dried on product. As I'd anticipated, priming took a long time. I only like to do a few twists at a time as there's a delay as it comes out. If you continue to twist without pausing you're likely to waste a lot of product. I twisted and waited and twisted and waited in cycle for about half an hour before anything came out. I did end up with a little squiggle from overdoing it but after that length of time I just felt relieved that it hadn't dried up altogether!

As well as being tricky to prime, the creamy eyes are also a little tricky apply. I don't have any issue applying to the lid and getting opaque coverage. The tricky part is blending out at the crease. Often I will end up taking the colour further above the crease than intended. The method that I currently use is to wipe off the excess from the brush, roll the brush on the back of my hand to ensure product is evenly distributed on the bristles and then use the pen to apply directly to the lid. I then use a clean finger to blend. I do this very gently particularly as my finger quickly gets loaded with product and you can run the risk of transferring more product rather than sheering out. You could use a cotton bud or MAC 217 brush to blend as an alternative.

This is how my E105 looked today as I got it ready to use. It still took a while to prime (I swatched and photographed three Stila palettes in the time to took) but as I said, I'm quite cautious when twisting. The swatch below is a single layer of colour. E105 is a medium brown with no shimmer, it's probably warmer than I'd go for ordinarily but once my eyes are lined I feel ok about the colour.

The swatch above is with more product added. It looks wet as the top layer has not yet set. This is probably something else important to point out. The cream does set and won't budge once it has dried. It is extremely long lasting and I don't experience creasing. I find I need a good eye makeup remover to take it off.

As you can see, it is a little patchy where I have blended

My overall thoughts about E105 is that it is a nice colour but it is tricky to apply and the packaging means that if you don't use it everyday, there's likely to be wastage. I don't have as many problems with the milky lip colour pens and I imagine the foundation and concealer are also easier to use because they are thinner in consistency and would be used on a more regular basis. I'm hesitant to buy any more of the eye colours for now. I think you need to be quite a patient person not to get frustrated by the priming, I freely admit to having little patience when it comes to such things!

In the picture above I am also wearing:

Face
What remains of my Max Factor Second Skin from this morning
My usual concealers - RMK & BECCA
Shu brow pencil
Pacific coast highway bronzer from the Stila 'Living the Life in Laguna' palette used as a blusher
RBR Sea of Showers Highlighting liquid on cheek bone and cupids bow

Eyes
TFSI primer
Ellis Faas E105
A tiny bit of Stila Sand Dollar from the 'Living the Life in Laguna' just above the crease
Kevyn Aucoin Basic Black pencil
Max Factor Xperience Volume mascara

Lips
Ellis Faas L207 Milky Lips


Disclosure: Both Ellis Faas products, the TFSI, Shu brow pencil and RMK concealer are items that I bought myself. All the other items listed were PR samples. 

Ellis Faas Milky Lips in L203 and L207

I bought these lipsticks a while ago as part of a bundle from Ebay. Both of the lipsticks are the Milky Lips formula which is described as being a more fluid and translucent finish. The colours I have are L203, a deep reddy brown and L207, a caramel nude. Having looked at the swatches on the Ellis Faas website, I would say that the swatches aren't entirely colour accurate. I was surprised by this as the swatches for my Creamy Eyes eyeshadow are true to the real colour. I think I actually prefer the online representation of these lipstick colours.

I included this to show how the product dispenses.

If you haven't come across Ellis Faas products before, they're all presented in this stylish silver bullet shaped pen. Depending on which product you have, the pens are tipped with a brush or sponge applicator. The colour is loaded by twisting the pen at the base. This system does have it's downsides, it can be tricky to load some of the cream formulas if they are not used regularly. The product has a tendency to dry up and form a plug inside the applicator making it very hard to prime the pen.

I haven't suffered this problem with either of the Milky Lips (I do have this issue with my eyeshadow). However I do find that I usually 'over-prime' the brush as they are slow to load and there will be a blob sitting at the tip when I go to re-apply. Fortunately it doesn't dry up because of the consistency of the lipstick and I think the lipsticks probably benefit from the fact that you will apply several times in a day unlike an eyeshadow.

The lipsticks have a lovely feel on the lips and they're pleasant to apply. The formula, although described as fluid, isn't runny. I do find when I look at the swatch pictures that my application looks a little sloppy. I'm not sure if that's because I'm not used to applying with a brush or whether it's because of the formula. In person, I'm sure no one would spot the fact that my lines weren't crisp.

I have included two sets of swatches to show how the colour looks with a heavy application as well as a more sheer application.

I wanted to show you how both colours looked in the context of a full face shot*. I think both lean a bit too brown for me to feel entirely comfortable, although I think the darker L203 is the more flattering of the two.

Overall thoughts: I really like the texture of these lipsticks. These particularly colours aren't perfect for me so I would like to visit the counter in Liberty sometime to pick up a better shade. I'm also very pleased to report that these don't have the same applicator issues as my Creamy Eyes pen.


*My apologies for the slightly pixelated look of these pictures, if you click to enlarge they don't look like that at all. Picasa seems to be doing this to my images a lot lately. I will do my best to sort it out!

Blatant Copying!

Sorry, that probably sounds more juicy than it is, it's actually me that's been doing the copying! I was reading one of Visionary Beauty's posts the other day and spotted Nina's description of her makeup that day in the comments. As I owned quite a few of the items she mentioned and I have been wanting to use my neglected Guerlain Oriental Metal for a while, I thought I would give Nina's look a try.

I don't own the Edward Bess Bronzer in Daydream or RBR Murmurings sheer lipstick so my substitutions were the Le Metier de Beaute Blonzer and Laura Mercier Lip Stain in Hibiscus topped with BECCA Lip Plumping gloss.

As my base I'm wearing Ellis Faas Skin Veil in S102 and the matching concealer in S202. Around my nose and on blemishes I used BECCA concealer in Praline. I only had a small sample of the Ellis Faas and when I initially put it on I wasn't sure about the colour match but looking at the pictures I really like how it looks.

I applied as Nina described. RBR Atlas Swallowtail cream eyeshadow over the mobile lid and the taupe from Le Metier de Beaute Le Cirque Kaleidescope applied over the cream. I lined with Guerlain loose kohl in Oriental Metal and blended RBR Delicata over the top using a MAC 224. I think as my lashes lack oomph I would have benefited from tightlining with a darker brown or black to give more definition.

I used the Le Metier Blonzer all over the cheeks lightly and applied RBR Delicata to the apples of my cheeks. Of course, I wonder whether the EB Bronzer might look better colourwise with the rest of the shades. I didn't check the colour of Murmuring until afterwards (it's a beautiful sheer damson) but I was in the mood to wear the Laura Mercier Hibiscus lip stain for a splash of colour. The BECCA plumping gloss gives a nice sheen and has moisturising ingredients to counter any drying from the lip stain. Fortunately the Laura Mercier formula isn't too bad in that respect though it does seem to need reapplying during the day.

Overall I'm pleased with how it turned out but I'm a little unhappy with how far I took colour in towards the bridge of my nose. Next time I will add more definition under the lashes with black or brown liner and use a more volumising mascara. I may have a go adding switching to Bonheur on the lips as I imagine that would be more similar Murmurings too.

Where do you get inspiration for your looks? Do you ever try things you've seen on magazines, blogs or YouTube? Or are you the sort of person that other's copy?




Disclosure: The BECCA items and RBR Atlas Swallowtail were PR Samples. As ever, none of the links in my posts are affiliated to any brand or company.