Freebie Alert - Stila Makeup Amnesty

I thought this might be of interest to any of you that are based in London. On the 19th January you will be able to go along to the new Stila makeup counter in Harvey Nichols and trade in an old lipgloss for a brand new Lip Glaze in Kitten worth £15. If you're a makeup fanatic, I doubt you will struggle to find an old lipgloss knocking about at the bottom of your makeup bag and it's a nice way to try the iconic Lip Glaze formula. I don't have the shade Kitten but I recently reviewed one of the Lip Glaze sets here.

Stila launched in Harvey Nichols in Birmingham last month and is due to arrive in the Manchester store the first week of February. There will also be a Makeup Amnesty in Manchester, details of the date will be published on the 'What's On' page of the Harvey Nichols website.

Stila Convertible Colour in Lilium

I want to start this post by saying that I really like the Stila Convertible Colours in general and I've posted about Stila CC in Orchid before. I was really excited to receive Lilium in an event bag and wanted to love it like my other cream blushers. It's a pretty petal pink shade with a hint of beige when swatched. On paper this sounds like the perfect shade for me. Unfortunately, I find the colour doesn't do much for me when applied.

I have quite high colour in my cheeks and as Lilium is quite pale and delicate, I find it doesn't really show up very well against my natural colouring. It's not light enough on my colouring to be a highlighter either. I find that it creates a sheen on my skin but because of the lack of obvious colour the sheen seems to accentuate the imperfections in this area (I really wish I could ignore those eye crease, can I pretend it's lack of sleep?).

This is simply a case of the colour not working for me. I still intend to add some more of the Convertible Colours to my collection and at £16 they're quite reasonably priced. Stila products are available from Boots, Escentual and BeautyBay.


Disclosure: Press sample

Stila Autumn Collection

I know, I know, Autumn collections are so last month and I'm supposed to be writing about Christmas. Well, I confess I'm usually a little rubbish when it comes to the Holiday collections. I've no problems with being festive but I don't have any parties to go to and glitter and big lashes would be a bit over the top for the school run. So, I'm still enjoying the Autumn/Winter collections whilst I can.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Boots in Milton Keynes and spent a little while browsing the Stila stand. There were two lipgloss trio sets, one warm and one cool. I purchased the cool set and you can see the swatches below. Although the lipglosses don't look particularly small they aren't full size, containing 1.5ml of product each. I'm very happy with this as I don't wear lipglosses often and I find they're one item of cosmetic that does go off quite quickly. I've been wanting to try the Stila lip glaze formula for a very long time unfortunately I find the formula feels quite sticky on the lips. I find it more sticky than say a MAC lipglass. I do like the colours in this set very much. Especially Seashell and Raisin.

Top to bottom: grapefruit, seashell and raisin

Left to right: grapefruit, seashell and raisin

The other thing that caught my eye was the palette of neutral eyeshadows. There are actually two palettes available: In the Light and Natural Beauty. I only spotted the In the Light Palette at the Milton Keynes stand. I know that everyone has gone crazy for the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette but I believe it isn't released until January in the UK. If you're looking for a neutrals palette and can't wait till January, I would recommend taking a look at this. In the Light costs £25 and contains ten eyeshadows, including the ever popular Kitten and a Smudge Stick eyeliner in Damsel (a matte chocolate brown). Why didn't I get this palette? Partly because I couldn't justify anymore neutrals and partly because I was accompanied on this shopping trip by my husband. I know you know what I'm saying here!

I think the Custom Colour blush in Coral might also have been released as part of this collection. I only saw the pink version on the stand but I spotted the Coral blusher is available on Beautybay.com. I was really taken with this blusher when I attended the Stila event earlier this year. The colour apparently adapts to your skin pH to create a unique colour (does anyone else remember the trend for the green colour adapting lipsticks of the 80's?). I was quite surprised to see these blushers cost £13 which is less than I had expected. In fact, overall I think that Stila is pitched at a lower price point than it once was. The lipgloss set cost £10 and I was surprised that the Convertible Colours costs £16 rather than the £20+ I had assumed. It seems that Stila is one of the few things that has been unaffected by inflation!

What have you been swatching on your shopping travels?

Stila Week: Striking in South Beach Palette

This is the third and final Stila Beach Palette that I will review. Striking in South Beach was definitely the hardest of the three to photography. Both of the 'blue' eyeshadows on the left hand side (Wave and Cabana) seemed determined to evade a fair representation. Wave is lavender although it photographs as blue in the pan and Cabana is a smoky indigo. The depth of colour is accurate but both have more of a purple undertone than is represented in my pictures.

The silvery Ocean Drive and the shimmery black Nightlife look just as they appear in the pan. Although strangely, when swatched, Ocean Drive appears quite blue so that there is a graduation of colour moving from Ocean Drive to Wave to Cabana. All of the eyeshadows have some shimmer, with Ocean Drive being the most shimmery of the four colours.

As with the Living the Life in Laguna palette, I found the eyeshadows a little tricky to work with. The colour pay-off isn't great and I struggled to get an even application. Packing it on resulted in fallout so this is definitely one to apply before foundation. Again, the application guide recommended applying some of the colours wet and no doubt this would make for a better result. I'm going to be forced to wet my brush at some point aren't I?

Although the application was uneven, I really liked the smoky indigo effect. I wasn't really sure how the blusher and bronzer shades would work with the eyeshadows. I'm still not convinced of Sobe as a bronzer (it pulls rather orange on my skin) but the Art Deco pink is prettier and less bold than I had imagined.

As with the other palettes, there is some variation in the quality of the eyeshadows and blushers but I want to point out once again that these palettes cost a rather bargainous £10 each. That's £3 less than a single Stila powder eyeshadow. So although they might not be perfect across the board, they are a great way to experiment with colour.

The Stila Beach palettes are available from Escentual.com and Beautybay.com, as well as several other online retailers.



Disclosure: PR Sample

Stila Week: Living the Life in Laguna

Living the Life in Laguna is a palette of warm, pinky neutrals. As with the other beach palettes, it contains four eyeshadow and two cheek colours: one blusher, one bronzer.

Bright sunlight

Overcast lighting

I shall start with the eyeshadows. Sand Dollar is a medium pink with quite a lot of shimmer. Although it's quite pigmented it is possible to sheer this one out to use as a wash. Sunset is a shimmery russet colour. Of all of the eyeshadows this has the best pigmentation and the smoothest texture. Cove is a mauve taupe colour and contains a discrete amount of shimmer. Bonfire is a chocolate brown with russet shimmer.

L-R: Sand Dollar, Cove, Sunset and Bonfire

I had expected to really like both Cove and Bonfire. Unfortunately their texture means they are tricky to work with. The powder is tightly packed, it picks up on a brush or a finger with a bit of effort but I find it hard work to transfer the colour to the lid (I tried the back of my hand too with a brush and had the same problem). In the placement guide inside the palette it suggests using Bonfire with a damp brush. It's possible that it would work ok like this as a liner. It might be a bit fiddly though if you were using this as a travel palette.

Flash

The cheek colours have been my surprise favourites in this palette. Although Pacific Coast Highway is supposed to be a bronzer I find it pulls quite peachy on my skin rather than tan. I think both of these make nice cheek colours. You can see how Pacific Coast looks when worn as a blusher at the bottom of this post.

I had a go at creating an eye look with the palette today. I'm very sorry to say that I failed to execute something I was happy to share because of the issues mentioned above. I found I couldn't get Cove to transfer onto my lid and Bonfire was too patchy to use as a crease colour. I tried with a variety of different brushes but had no success. Unfortunately the standouts shades, Sand Dollar and Sunset, are not flattering on my colouring without using other colours alongside them. If you would like to see how all of the colours look when applied, I can recommend taking a look at Lipglossiping's beautiful look.

I think how much value you would get from this palette depends on your colouring and also somewhat on your patience when it comes to applying dampened eyeshadow. If you enjoy pinky neutrals and could wear Sunset with confidence, I think this would be a worthwhile purchase. If you gravitate to more cool neutrals or wanted it just for the mauve and brown eyeshadows, I think you might want to pass on this.

The Stila Beach palettes are available from Escentual.com and Beautybay.com, as well as several other online retailers.


Disclosure: PR Sample.

Stila Week: Wonderful in Wakiki Beach Palette

I had a look at the Stila limited edition Collectable Beach Palettes in Boots earlier this year. 'Stunning in Sayulita' caught my eye as a pretty neutrals palette. I toyed with the idea of trying one of the others but was foiled as they only had testers for one of the colourways. In the excitement of the summer holidays I forgot all about them.

I was sent three of the palettes to try: Living the Life in Laguna, Wonderful in Wakiki and Striking in South Beach. The two others palette that complete the collection are: Stunning in Sayulita and Haute in the Hamptons.

 

After my personal failure to swatch in store, I wanted to swatch all of palettes to share with you. As you might imagine I've ended up with a lot of pictures. So, rather than have one single very picture heavy post, I will post about each palette individually. I also have an outstanding review of a Convertible Colour to share with you so I think we can safely call this Stila Week!

Wonderful in Wakiki

 

Wonderful in Wakiki is a very vibrant palette to look at. As well as three warm neutral colours it has a pop of colour in the form of a striking blue. The lightest eyeshadow Wahine is a a sheer gold with shimmer, Sarong is an intense coppery shade and Coconut is a medium brown with golden shimmer. The vibrant blue Surf is the only matte finish. One word of warning, Surf does seem to stain the skin a little so be careful with your placement!

Natural Light

Flash

The cheek colours are quite similar in depth. North Shore is the blusher and has more of a coral undertone whereas Hanauma Bay is a bronzing shade. Although confusingly on the placement guide inside the palette it suggests you apply Hanauma Bay to the cheeks and use North Shore as a highlighter. There's no way I could use North Shore as a highlighter on my pale skin. Both the cheek colours contain shimmer and can be a little dusty as you pick them up, so you will need to tap off the excess before applying.

I applied each of the colours as per the placement guide inside the palette. In the photographs below I am wearing Wahine as a wash all over the eye up to the brow bones, Sarong in the crease, Coconut on the mobile lid and Surf on the lower lash line. I was happy with how the colours look on the lid but I'm not sold on the blue underneath the eye, purely because of my eye shape. The cheek colours felt a little too warm and intense for me and I suspect that this particular palette would be best suited to darker skin tones than my own. However, I can imagine it would be a nice selection of colours for a holiday in the sun.

I will do a roundup once I have posted swatches of all three and will include my general impressions of these limited edition palettes. Suffice to say that priced £10 each, these are an easily affordable treat. The Stila Beach palettes are available from Escentual.com and Beautybay.com, as well as several other online retailers.

Disclosure: PR Sample.

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. 

Stila Returns to the UK

I'm very pleased to say that have returned to the UK. I remember I would always admire their product in SpaceNK but this was in my erratic make-up wearing, mid-twenties. I lusted after their iconic lip glazes but never made a purchase. It's good news that I can make up for it now!

It's been business as usual for Stila in other Countries, so they've continued to grow and develop during the hiatus. It's interesting to see what has changed and what has stayed the same. They still have all of their lovely eyeshadows, including the famous 'Kitten' but gone is the cardboard packaging. I'm happy to report that the lip glazes and Convertible Colours remain the same.

Swatches of some of the Sparkle Waterproof eyeliners. That bright spot on my hand is Kitten eyeshadow!

Some of the things that really caught my eye at the launch were the glorious Sparkle Waterproof eyeliners, the All Over Shimmer Powder duo in Kitten and the rather interesting Custom Colour blushers. The Custom Colour blushers apparently react with your skin's pH to create a slightly different colour each time you use it. The shade that really appealed to me hasn't been released yet, it's a glorious pinky-apricot colour and I predict a riot when that comes out! The Smudge Sticks, that are essentially the smudge pots in stick form, looked interesting too. I like the shade Lionfish in particular.

One Step Bronzer is at the top of this image and the One Step Primer is in the middle.

There are some new base products including a One Step Primer and Perfect & Correct Foundation but what I'm particularly keen to explore are some of their older and more well know items. I've already mentioned the Lip Glazes (they smell amazing), also on my wishlist are the Convertible Colours in Gladiola and Gerbera and I was really taken with many of their brushes too.

Stila is available from Boots.com and Escentual.com as well as a few other online stockists. I'm not actually sure if the range has made it in to Boots stores yet. If you've spotted it, let me know. Have you already made any Stila purchases since their return? What's on your wishlist?