Bad Case of VCL (visible contour line) for Lindsay Lohan

Bad Case of Visible Contour Line! (Images from Zimbo.com)

Oh..now you are definitely going to want to photo-shop that image!  Lindsay Lohan photographed on Lake Como on 26^th September modeling for designer Philipp Plein.

Never mind Philip Plein clothing, this could have been a photo shoot to campaign for the continuing real need for images to be photo shopped or perhaps for a campaign extolling the evils of contouring makeup and calling for it to be banned.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love a bit of contouring, Lord knows it’s the only way I look like I have cheek bones at all, but this is awful. Now, I’m not having a pop at Lindsay, poor Lindsay has her own problems, no, the blame for this lands squarely at the feet of the makeup artist who performed this VCL atrocity.

Just because the majority of images printed are photo shopped, I don’t think that is enough of an excuse for that type of heavy handed makeup.  It might be alright on a closed private shoot but Lindsay was bound to be papped looking like this, I’d be calling for the surrender of the makeup artists brushes!!

 

AVON ANEW Genics Treatment Concentrate Review

AVON ANEW Genics Treatment Concentrate

AVON ANEW Genics Treatment Concentrate is the newest addition to the AVON ANEW Range of skin care products and this particular product comes with big promises that I personally find hard to believe, they seem a little to good to be true!  But I bought the product for myself as I was in need of a new serum/moisturiser anyway and thought why not try this.

The product, contains a patented Youthgen Technology* and promises:

• Overnight: lines and wrinkles look diminished
• In 3 Days: Deep wrinkles look plumped
• In 2 weeks: Dramatically reduces the look of age spots and discolourations
• In 8 weeks: Takes up to 10 years off your look (Based on a consumer study of 157 people.)

Pretty hefty promises!!!  Some I suspect only surgery could achieve!

So the big question is, does it work? 

My initial impressions of this product are so over whelmingly positive, it has after only a week of using it changed the texture of my skin and it has notably improved the appearance of old scaring I have.  My skin feels smoother and looks brighter, and yes, I think some fine lines do indeed look diminished.  Whether I will look 10 years younger before Christmas and need to start carrying ID to get served alcohol in bars.. well I don’t know, but I’ll keep you updated.

 

Sarah Harding – Shouldn’t be ‘Aloud’

Sarah Harding The Look Magazine Fashion Show Sept 2011

Back in the day, I always thought that Sarah Harding was perhaps the best looking member of Girls Aloud, she had a natural beauty and radiance, so I was a bit perplexed to see this shot of her modelling at The Look Magazine fashion show on 19^th September at Westfield Stratford City sporting red hair and a matching orange-red tan!  The orange outfit just adds to the overall orange lunacy!!  And in case you think it’s a trick of the camera, check out the skin colour and tone of the people sitting in the audience behind her.

At only 29 years old, Sarah Harding is undoubtedly a beautiful girl but I think the red hair and the orange red tan are very aging on her.  But no one could accuse her of being boring with her hair, she also had black hair at one stage. I’ve got to say I wasn’t a fan of that look on her and I thought she looked like Janice Dickinson or some other well preserved 56 year old with a penchant for a heavy tan and surgery!

I do love the fact she’s daring with her hair colour, even if I think she looked way better as a blonde, but please just put the spray tan gun down Sarah, and back away!!

 

Kiehls Ultra Facial Oil Free Lotion

I was fortunate enough recently to have been given the opportunity to review Kiehls Ultra Facial Oil Free Lotion as a guest reviewer on Cornflakegirlsmusings blog.

Kiehl’s ultra facial oil free lotion is a moisturizing lotion for normal to oily skin types and promises to reduce the appearance of oil on the skin while locking in moisture.

Read the full and detailed review of Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Oil Free Lotion on at Cornflakegirls blog.

If you haven’t already read Cornflakegirls blog get your makeup lovin’ rear ends over there, Paula covers all things beauty related, and as she says herself, ‘you can expect some rambling about reading, films, tv, rugby, politics,and gluten free cooking/baking as well’.   All good stuff.

A big thanks to Paula aka Cornflakegirl for the opportunity to be a guest reviewer. x

 

Face2 Pro Concealer Review

Face2 Pro Palette Concealer

I bought this concealer after attending a make up training day with Make Up For Ever.  Face2 is an ‘own brand’ by the owner of the MUFE store in Dublin and they do a full makeup range with some nice foundations, but that’s a separate story.

The Face2 Pro Concealer comes in a screw top container and has three colours: yellow, and a fair and, a medium concealer all on one wheel, which is handy.  If you have never used yellow concealer before they are great for concealing those purple/blue under eye dark circles and can add warmth to the skin in general if buffed on lightly with a duo fibre brush or stipple brush.  The combination of the other two colours are useful for concealing spots that have their own profile, you know the ones that feel like you’re growing a second face!

 

MAC 217 Brush Dupe

While looking for something I could get free with my Boots No. 7 voucher, I headed to the No. 7 tools section and picked up a Boots No 7 blend and contour brush.  I have never seen this particular brush in the range before so I don’t know if it is a new addition or not.  This brush which retails at €7.00 is technically free when you use your boots voucher and is a dead ringer for the MAC 217 brush.

The No. 7 brush is slightly smaller, in that it is not as densely packed as the MAC 217 but that in no way diminishes it’s performance, it really does exactly the same job. 

 

TheBalm Plump Your Pucker Lip Gloss Review

I recently went on a makeup course with MUFE and got myself some goodies, namely a face2 concealer and a lip-gloss from TheBalm.  I’m usually rubbish at buying lip-gloss, I tend to look at them in the store but just can’t muster up the enthusiasm to make a purchase, but Plump your Pucker lip-gloss by TheBalm spoke to me!

‘Formulated with a special combination of menthol and vitamin C’, they are supposed to ‘increase circulation to the lips and reduce the look of fine lines.  A special ingredient, Maxi-lip, works cumulatively to hydrate lips, making them look fuller.’  Now that’s a mouth full and I’m not exactly 100% sure what all that means.  But this lip-gloss is one of those tingly ones that feels weirdly lovely when you first put it on, which I guess makes your lips feel bigger.  I’m not totally convinced it makes my lips look any bigger but it does make me pout more, so maybe it does work?

Available in about 10 – 11 shades, I bought cherry my cola, which initially I thought related to the colour, and maybe it does, but this lip gloss tastes of Cherry Cola, or cola cubes (if you’re old enough to remember them) and is kind of yummy.  Retail price €11, not being a big purchaser of lip gloss I don’t know it that’s good value or not!  It has an old school lip-gloss wand, but really I prefer a lip-gloss in a tube as it’s more hygienic, but I can cope with taking some off the wand on to the back of my hand and applying it with a lip brush instead.

 

MAKE UP FOR EVER One Day Intensive Course

I bought a one day intensive makeup course with Make Up For Ever on a Groupon/City Deal for €79 which was a massive discount off their ‘voucher value price’ of €255.  I attended this course on Tuesday 30^th August and thought I would do a review of it.

The one-day intensive course, which should in reality be entitled a 4-hour course kicked off at 10:00 a.m. in MUFE store, which is located on Clarendon Street in Dublin 2.  The training room is set up at the back of the store behind black velvet curtains, which incidentally don’t block out the sound of the hoover going or staff shouting in the store over said hoover.   There were 12 of us on the course, all booked with a Groupon voucher from what I could ascertain and it was a mixed group aged between 20 and 50.  Some were there with friends; there was a mum and daughter duo (what a lovely thing to do with your mum!!) and a few Billy-no-mates, like myself.   We were set up 2 to a station and I ended up beside a lovely lady from Wexford.  It was a friendly room, and Lauren who took the class was very competent and sweet.  I had a few gripes, and yeah okay I’ll admit that I’m a fussy tart about details of comfort but it did annoy me that there were 2 different height chairs for students, I ended up on one of the really high ones, which meant I had to bend down into the mirror set up on the counter to see myself in it.  We are talking the kind of high that means you are looking into your own crotch all day!!

 

Inglot Eye Shadow Review

I finally succumbed to the lure of Inglot recently when I was on the look out for some new mauve/pink eye shadows.  I went in with the intention of getting maybe 4 or 5 shadows but walked out with 10 of them!  They are €5 for a round 1.4g pan, which is a lot cheaper than €9 for a 1.5g round pan in MAC.  The range in Inglot is broad and it’s easy to get a bit carried away.  So I got a few mauves to compliment some MAC ones I have and I also got some golds (seriously I have to stop with the golds I think I’m addicted to them?) and some grey blues.

If you’re familiar with Inglot then you know you can also get square pans for €6 (I don’t like the shape personally) and you can get them put into various sized palettes.  I prefer to buy the pans and drop them into other palettes I own.  Note that these pans are not magnetized so will fall out of a MAC palette, but I have a little tip for that one (how to fit an Inglot eyeshadow into a MAC palette).

 

How To ‘Fit’ an Inglot Eye Shadow Pan into a MAC Palette

I did a review on some Inglot eye shadows I bought and as I like to keep my eyeshadows in as few a palettes as possible, I thought I would share how I stored these new eye shadows.  So if you, like me, didn’t want to buy the Inglot palette and have an unfilled MAC palette at home, then your new best friend is magnetic tape. You can get this in most craft, hobby or art shops. This magnetic tape comes on a roll and is easy to tear off. It has one sticky side and is magnetized on the other.  I think I paid about €5 for it and have it an absolute age as you use very little of it at a time.

 

MAC Giveaway Winners

Thank you to everyone who took part in my 10,000 visit MAC giveaway which has now ended, the winners were, as selected by Random.org (I attributed everyone a number and Random.org picked the numbers 2 and 33, that’s about as scientific as it gets around here!!) and they were ….

Liz and Emer.

Congratulations ladies I’ll contact you via email for your postal address, I’m sure you’ll look fabulous and rock golden gaze.

Thank you to all you lovely people for visiting my blog and commenting it means so much to me.

I will be having more giveaways in the future so check back from time to time. x

 

What I’d Save If My Make Up Table Was On Fire!

If your makeup table was on fire and you could only save one thing, what would it be?  Now, before I get attacked for not saving the kids, the dog, the cat, the wedding album etc.from a burning building, take that as given, I mean if just your make up table or dressing table caught fire, what would you save?

I did consider saving my brushes, because I’ve spent so much on them and would be lost without them now, but I finally settled on my Make Up Forever Aqua Eyes Collector set of 25 absolutely fabulous waterproof crayons.  I feel like a small girl again when I look at these, they’s are like the prefect set of markers or crayons you got as a present before your little sister lost/broke/destroyed them on you, or the dog decided they looked good enough to eat!  Warning…  the next image is serious make up porn!!