Beauty Spotlight: London MakeUp Girl Does Desert Island Minimalism

It's London MakeUp Girl's turn to visit the Beauty Spotlight Desert Island, and she thought this would be easy peasy lemon squeezy as she likes a minimalist routine.

It actually turned out to be difficult difficult lemon difficult. Read on to find out what made the trip...

My Fringe Makeover

Picture Courtesy of Fox

As you will probably guess from the picture above, I'm referring to Fringe the TV show and not the hair above my eyebrows. With my terrible hair history, fringe cutting is a very, VERY bad idea. Anyway, getting back to the point, I've had a virtual Olivia/Fauxlivia makeover courtesy of Into The Palette. If you'd like to see the the placement breakdown and end results, you can find the post here. You can also see what I would look like with a fringe (and red hair) in my Fauxlivia look. Enjoy!

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.

The Weekend Catch-up including Beauty Spotlight

It's been a bit of a bad week at MB HQ. We had an abrupt end to the relaxing long weekend when Mr MB had a bump in his car on Tuesday morning. No one was hurt but the car took the brunt of it. Our insurance company are dithering over a decision and consequently we're totally without transport. I have a feeling that new car hunting is on the cards.

Exam season starts next week so I will be doing my annual switch from stay at home mum to busy exam invigilator. I always get a little nervous in the lead up but I have been trying hard to ignore the nerves and enjoy my last moments of freedom. One of my favourite methods of relaxing is plotting makeup purchases (it beats shopping for cars) and I've had plenty of inspiration from the Beauty Spotlight team this week!

The colours Trumpeter Koel and Lilac Reef Currasow used in this visual were reviewed by Visionary Beauty this week.

Are you a beauty sample junkie? Enter to win a Total Beauty Collection beauty sample box at Pammy Blogs Beauty!

Pink Sith’s tiny brain convinced her to get ANOTHER bronzer! At least it knew well enough to make it CHANEL!

Afraid of color? Prime Beauty helps ease you from black and white into Technicolor with six new pastel eye shadows shades from Make Up For Ever with tips on how to wear them!

Marcia from Beauty Info Zone is at it again trying to tempt you with her Sunday Riley eyeshadow posts. Will she sway you this time?

Looking for an effortless cool smoky eye look..look no further than the new eye shadows from Rouge Bunny Rouge, Visionary Beauty shows us the shades in Trumpeter Koel and Lilac Reef Curassow

Modesty Brown decides that depotting those neglected single eyeshadows is the way forward. Ever considered depotting your Rouge Bunny Rouge collection? Read this before putting knife to pan!

Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed is bitten by the Giorgio Armani Rouge D’Armani Sheers bug - check out her swatch and see if you think it might be contagious!

Perilously Pale finally finds out what all the buzz is about with the Armani Eyes to Kill Intense Eyeshadows from their Summer 2012 collection when she reviews Madra Perla. Now she can't wait for the rest of her Armani summer goodies to arrive!

At Everyday Beauty, Zuzu*s Petals felt a new wave of frustration over print ads, not because extremely young models were advertising anti-aging products but because over-40 models now look like they are under 30. What do you think about this new trend?

15 Minute Beauty Fanatic takes a closer look at deep cleansing brushes. What are the differences amongst the Clarisonic, Olay, Neutrogena and Proactiv products?

London Makeup Girl is celebrating Spring with a...grey nail polish. Well, it has been raining in London for the last month or so! Have a look at RGB Cosmetics nail polish in Dove.

Shannon at Lipstick Musings has fallen for the glimmer and gleam of YSL's new Dessin du Regard Waterproof Eyeliner in Luminescent Gold . See if you agree that this is one of the loveliest eyeliners ever!


Here are are a few of my other favourite reads from the week:

Best Things in Beauty shows us the new Chantecaille Cheek Cremes, something tells me they will have the most amazing texture.

The Non-Blonde has rekindled my interest in the Tom Ford collection with pretty swatches of Love Lust Cheek Color. 

If you're interested in the Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Lipstick you need to check Drivol about the Frivol's amazing swatches. 

I know I shouldn't be looking at eyeshadows but a girl has to keep abreast of current news. Planet Martha shares her thoughts on the Chanel Sable Emouvant Duo.

Makeup Magpie has been talking about NARS Summer 2012 this week. It's not a collection that particularly grabbed me but Makeup Magpie's eye look using the Ramtuelle trio and Calabria pencil is stunning.

The Beauty Look Book gives us a first look at the Burberry Iconic Nudes Collection. I think one of the new Lip Mists is likely to be my first venture into Burberry Cosmetics.

The next few weeks are going to involve a lot of early starts and Get Lippie has been inspiring me with how to look groomed quickly with her Five Minute Face Favourites.

Strictly speaking this isn't a post from this week but I thought we needed one more look at those TF Cream Colours for Eyes. Miss Chew took some very tempting pictures and made me long for my buying ban to be over!

Guest Post: Give your skin a break

I'm pleased to be able to let a really lovely lady take over today, with such an excellent choice of topic too. Nic of Strawberry Blonde Beauty Blog has been inspiring my beauty purchases for a long time now (we go back beyond the blogging days). Nic is more than just a great beauty blogger, she's an all round good egg and has held my hands through some difficult parenting moments, for which I am extremely grateful. Anyway, without further ado, I will leave you in Nic's very capable hands.

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Thank you Jane for inviting me to guest blog… I am honoured!

Sometimes I lie in bed at night mentally listing the number of skincare and beauty products I use daily… a number which, unsurprisingly, has increased since I started beauty blogging.

I’m passionate about skincare and have used it religiously since my late teens. I care about what I put on my skin, research it thoroughly, and spend as much as I can afford on what I believe are the best products for me. I’m fickle too… I get bored easily and even if something is working for me, I always want to try the latest wonder product I’ve heard about. At times I’ve used poor quality products (for financial reasons) and while I know quality doesn’t always equate with cost, my skin has suffered as a result – and improved when I returned to ‘the good stuff’!

What has never occurred to me until recently, is that maybe all this goodness I’m applying to my face twice daily isn’t always so good for me. Maybe my skin feels overworked, or perhaps there really can be too much of a good thing? Hormone fluctuations can occur throughout key stages of our lives, like puberty, pregnancy and menopause, but factors such as contraception, diet and stress can play a big part too and it’s definitely true that our skin reflects what’s going on inside.

Several months ago I tweeted about a skin flare up and Pai Skincare responded. I’d previously had no contact with Pai, though I was familiar with the brand through reading reviews by some of my favourite bloggers.

Sarah Brown, founder and owner of Pai asked me about the exact condition of my skin and requested a list of every product I used at the time. She then researched potential allergens or irritants within the product ingredients and came back to me with some advice.

The main thing she thought I ought to do was give my skin a complete break from complicated skincare. When the owner of a highly respected skincare brand suggests this, you sit up and listen! I was both surprised and humbled by Sarah’s advice and would like to personally thank her for the time she took to advise someone who at that point, had never even tried her products. (I since have and love them, though Pai held off sending them until my skin was back to normal!)
This was Sarah’s advice, which she agreed to let me share in this post…

“Even the most robust of skin can develop sensitivities to ingredients that it may have previously been tolerant to. These sensitivities can be caused by hormone fluctuations, stress, illness, tiredness or overuse of particularly harsh or active cosmetics.



In all cases I'd recommend first giving your skin a rest.



While all beauty lovers want to sample a wide variety of skincare classics & new innovations, chopping and changing products regularly can leave skin very confused and out of balance.



As it responds to the varying oil levels in each, your skin adjusts its own oil production to reach an equilibrium. If this happens too often, your skin simply can't keep up, and can breakout, dry-out or develop a red reaction.



Allow your skin to rediscover its natural balance, and protect this with gentle products.



Increasing your intake of Essential Fatty Acids (Omega 3,6&9) can also help calm and condition your skin from the inside out, as they are powerful anti-inflammatories. Oily fish, seeds and nuts are great dietary sources, or you can opt for 1-2 tsps of organic Hemp or Flaxseed oil a day.”

Sarah Brown, Pai Skincare

With the EFA (omega oils), try and buy out of a fridge in your health food store and store it the same way at home. If they're on a shelf in a shop it's not a good sign and are best avoided. These oils are very prone to degradation and you want to take them in their most 'active' fresh form.

Obviously I had to keep cleansing and moisturising my skin at the time, so I used the most simple products I had, which at that time were Purity organic cleanser and moisturiser. Next time I’ll use a gentle natural oil, such as Jojoba; Pai products or Neal’s Yard Calendula Cleanser. 

I also minimised the amount of makeup I wore at the time, so that my skin could breathe. Products such as Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint or Estee Lauder’s new BB cream are perfect for this, along with a slick of mascara and gloss. My skin definitely benefited from this whole process. The sore spots and under-skin bumps cleared up and my face returned to normal.

While I still test new skincare products for my blog, I’m now much more careful about how I introduce them, adding one new product to my regime at a time, so that if I have a negative reaction, it’s easier to figure out what’s caused it. And in between switching to a new range, I’ll stick to basic, gentle products for a week or two, to avoid throwing my skin out of balance.

Have you given your skin a break recently or is it something you’d consider?

I hope this has been helpful… thank you for reading – and thanks again to Jane for letting me post on one of my favourite beauty blogs!
Nic x

BECCA Balearic Love News

The BECCA Balearic Love collection has been available for about a week now and I have been eagerly awaiting blog posts. I had been really excited about this collection from the moment I saw the promo shots and had been very sad that it wasn't released before my self-imposed eyeshadow ban started. In fact, it wasn't until I started filling my basket with the nail varnishes (hello vamp nails!) that I remembered that I had banned myself from buying more nail colours too. This pretty much makes this collection a no go for me which is a blow as a BECCA lover.

As I can't bring you any reviews, I wanted to point you in the direction of the lovely Christa from Perilously Pale. Last night she posted the first images of that palette that I have seen and well.........it's not exactly what I was expecting. Christa's review is well worth a read if you were considering buying this palette based on the promotional pictures.

The Balearic Love collection is available from Zuneta and www.beccacosmetics.com/uk.
No doubt I will continue to torture myself by looking out for reviews.

Recommended Reads and a Ramble

I recently discovered a lovely blog thanks to one of my other favourite bloggers, The Non-Blonde. Glossed in Translation, written by Elizabeth, is a wonderful read and full of very lust-worthy and interesting Japanese brands that are completely new to me.

Elizabeth recently posted some wonderful comparisons and reviews of her Hakuhodo brush collection, especially to help those interested in making an order before the 1st January price increase. I'm extremely grateful for theses sort of review posts, especially as I know how time consuming they can be to put together. Taking good pictures at this time of the year is hard work!

I recently took part in an International swap with one of my favourite bloggers, Lipstick Rules. Michelle posted about our swap yesterday and I wanted to point you in the direction of her lovely post. Her kind words really touched me and, especially after reading some fairly harsh (and unfair) criticism of bloggers, it's good to be reminded how lovely the beauty blogging community is. I agree with Michelle that what we get out of it goes beyond the cosmetic(s). I tend to think that people who criticize beauty blogs for being unprofessional and containing 'hairy armed' swatches, aren't real blog readers and don't truly understand the space that blogs fill. Beauty blogs aren't a replacement or extension of magazines. They're written by real women who love makeup and want to share their passion and possibly help others. I have no journalistic aspirations but I love sharing my daily ramblings with you and will continue to do so, hairy armed swatches and all!

Modesty Brown is Away

For the first time since my smallest was born, I am spending the night away minus all three children. We're off visiting friends and I can't tell you how excited I am by the prospect of an unbroken nights sleep and maybe even a lie in!

I don't like to leave you without anything to read so may I point you in the direction of the Fall Edition of Makeup4All's wonderful magazine. As well as interviews with personal favourites such as Rebecca Morrice Williams and Gina Brooke, Marina shares her picks from the Autumn collections and I have to say the magazine is a visual delight for any beauty junkie. I gasped at the sight of the stunning Givenchy collection! I hope you enjoy reading as much as I did.

Have a lovely Sunday, whatever you're doing x

Makeup Tutorials on Because London

I'm not sure if I'm last on the scene to Because London but just in case, I thought I'd share their latest tutorial.



I have the Zuneta blog to thank for this discovery as I enjoyed the Pink and Red tutorial so much I wanted to see more. The makeup in the videos was done by Kay Montano, hair by Jonathan Soons and text by Grace Timothy. I feel inspired to give some of these looks a try!

My Favourite Reads This Week

Cafe Makeup reading usually spells new lusts for me. I'm not the biggest Bronzer fiend but both the Dior Aurora and Chanel Bronze Rose are talking to me. I think the Dior in particular is lust worthy on looks alone!

Joeybunny via Pink Sith and Makeup Magpie both have me in a dither about the NARS Dogon duo. It looks beautiful and I need it yesterday! I rather like the look of Mayflower lipstick too.

I was really interested to read Delicate Hummingbird's post about the new Guerlain Ombre Fusion cream eyeshadow in Havana. Especially as it dispelled my assumption that the tube was frosted glass. The texture sounds lovely and the colour looks very appealing.

Makeup Picnic swatched and shared her beautiful collection of Rouge Bunny Rouge Lipglosses. I only have one of these but I love the fact that they're so polished and grown up. Meeta has such a lovely selection of colours.

The Non-Blonde's Edward Bess Mystery eyeshadow post reminded me how much I love the 'Bess Magic' with neutrals. I still don't own any eyeshadows but I think that the new shades have popped up on Zuneta so it's time for some shopping!

Another Zuneta related post which caught my eye was Visionary Beauty's review of the Cochine hand and body lotion in Water Hyacinth & Lime Blosson. There's always room for more handcreams at Casa MB, I'm interested in the Cochine diffusers too.

Get Lippie shared a very useful secret summer must have. Bodyglide isn't sexy nor is it going to make you look pretty but it's a handy product to know of if warm weather means blisters and chafing for you.
 
For of an alternative take on the Royal Wedding fever, I loved Helen at Just Nice Things series of Regal themed nail polish reviews. I enjoyed the review of Orly Prince Charming especially. I'm not sure if Kate's dress was totally 'Disney Princess' but at least the wait is over now!

Not a read as such but I wanted to draw your attention to Lipstick Luuvie's blog sale. There are lots of gorgeous high end goodies which are worth a look if you fancy a bank holiday bargain.

Two new blog discoveries that I want to share are Perilously Pale and Hopelessly Devoted to Makeup. Both fellow Mummies with a passion for cosmetics. They've been making me drool with their beautiful Le Metier de Beaute collections.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
MB x

My Favourite Reads This Week

The Modesty Brown household has turned in to the house of unfortunate illness at the moment. I suspect this weekend is going to involve a lot of blog reading and looking at pretty things to take my mind off the horrors. I may even indulge in a spot of online shopping. In the absence of FOTD or swatch photos to write about, I thought I would share with you some of my favourite reading from this week.

Image from weheartit.com

This week Makeup Magpie shares a first look at her Chantecaille Sea Turtles palette including a comparison to Chanel's Regard Perle. These look so beautiful and I believe they will be available in the UK in a couple of weeks.

I loved reading Grace London's guide to looking and feeling good as a new Mum. A subject very close to my heart and coincidentally how I discovered beauty blogs in the first place. Good makeup and beauty products really can get you through those early years!

Visionary Beauty reviews the new undereye concealer from the By Terry stable and compares it to Touche Veloutee. Interesting reading if you're currently considering purchasing one of these pen concealers.

Over at Cafe Makeup I was interested to get a first look at the new Hourglass Aura Cheek Stains. The cheek and lip stains have just arrived at Zuneta and the cheek stain in Rouge is definitely top of my shopping list this week!

Gaia at The Non-Blonde brings us the latest Le Metier de Beaute Kaleidoscope, Smouldering Embarkment. It certainly looks like another beautiful combination of colours from LMdB. I shall be interested to hear if this will make it to British shores unlike the previous Holiday Kaleidoscope. As an aside, I really hope that Le Metier does return to the Selfridges website.

Always keen to learn about new brushes to try, I enjoyed reading about The Beauty Look Books favourite eye brushes. I've definitely added a few to my list to investigate.

I'm in the market for new foundation so I was very interested in Lipstick Rules post about DiorSkin Nude. With an extensive makeup collection finishing a product can be a bit of a rarity, so an empty bottle means praise indeed!

Get Lippie tells us about the new Guerlain Rouge Automatique lipsticks. I love the old yet new style and quite like the fact that they've named shades after other Guerlain classics. It sounds like the texture is superb too.

What has caught your eye this week? Are you planning any new purchases this weekend?

Paying it Forward

I received a blog award a little while ago from ketoglutarat from the wonderfully named Delicate Hummingbird blog. The idea of the award is that you pass it on to talented bloggers that don't have a huge following or they're less well known. I love this idea, I read a lot of excellent blogs that have a more exclusive readership and I thought I would take the opportunity to bring them to your attention.

I haven't passed on the award as I wanted to mention quite a few people rather than the 3 - 5 as stipulated by the Liebster blog award. So, if you got a mention you can consider yourself gifted with my own very special blog award!

I'd love it if you go and have a read of these blogs if you're not following them already. They're all a fantastic source of information (and full of temptation) and always leave me wanting more!

Makeup Merriment
Lipstick Luvvies
Welsh Beauty Blog
Mookie on the Bench
Visionary Beauty
Makeup Picnic
Dempeaux
Reigning Beauties
Vaguely in Vogue

I hope you're all having a lovely day.
Jane x