Bobbi Brown Creamy Color for Lips and Cheeks – Pink Truffle

July 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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My recent trip to the Bobbi Brown counter also saw me pick this little beauty up for my holidays. It’s a really versatile product, for both lips and cheeks. The colour, however,when it comes out of the tube is frankly terrifying.

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Luckily you don’t end up looking like a reject from clown school as it fades down to a pretty blush on application. This is my first foray into what I would call liquid blush (I reckon cream should come in a pot) and I am enjoying using it. Great for perking up lips and cheeks on your Summer holiday.

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July empties

July 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Many moons ago, a friend worked for someone who had obviously told his wife to take some cash and pop out to buy “the girls in the office” something for Christmas. The wife, obviously with an eye to the main chance, had popped to the local department store. And what the girls in the office got were cute little make up bags filled with Estée Lauder miniatures. Yes, the girls in the office got the Gifts with Purchase while the wife was presumably luxuriating in a bath full of expensive suds while she examined her full size foundation.

I have a drawer full of such tiny samples and bags and usually just pull them out if I am away for a night or two. However, back in February I picked up a GWP from Estée Lauder that was genuinely useful. As well as containing a few sample size moisturisers, there was a really nice full size pink lippie and a 5ml pot of Advanced Night Repair for eyes. This tiny pot lasted a full 4 months which I think is pretty generous. It’s finally come to an end and while I am giving Elemis a whirl round the eye area now, I really liked this product and may well buy the full size.

My other finishee for July is my Jurlique night cream. I reviewed this earlier in the year but in brief I properly loved this. It is spendy but you can really feel the quality of the product on your skin. I’ve swapped to Clinique to match up with my night serum for a while but I will be back for more Jurlique in the future.

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Bobbi Brown Desert Twilight palette

July 9, 2012 By 4 Comments

Bobbi Brown Desert Twilight

The first rule of Palette Club is that you shouldn’t buy it unless you like every single one of the colours in it. Oh, go on then, I’ll give you a free dislike on one colour, but basically you need to be in love with the rest. I learned this lesson the hard way when I was flying a lot in the 90s and kept getting suckered in to those cute all in one palettes that they flog in Duty Free.

With the Palette Club rules in mind I have passed on quite a few palettes that have tempted me, but the launch of this one coincided with a point where I had John Lewis vouchers in my hot little hand. Who needs more sheets? Well, apparently not me, baby.

Colours in the palette

So, although it’s July, I think this might be a Fall collection? If, so they have got the UK weather spot on as it was overcast and tipping down as I scurried into John Lewis with my spending hat on. I will confess I did have one of the colours already (cement) but in the cream formulation, so obviously that doesn’t count (new, additional Palette club rule).

The colours are all very wearable, with a mix of browns, pinks and hints of aubergine. Three are matt (Navajo, Cement and Chocolate Mauve), as you can see from the information label and five are metallic (Twilight, Pink Dusk and Twilight Pink) and sparkle (Watercolor Pink and Dusk). I’ve swatched them on my arm in the same order they appear in the palette.

This is a gorgeous palette, and worth a look if you are passing the counter. It’s Limited Edition and £48.

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Keeping a one sentence journal

July 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Sample image from the Oh Life homepage

Those of you with children will know that what seems like an eternity stretching before you when they are born, rapidly turns into a twinkling of an eye when you have an eye rolling teenager. I’ve been pretty good at recording the big stuff – birthdays, Christmases, school productions and sports days – both in photos and words down the years, but when I read about keeping a one sentence journal on Gretchen Rubin’s blog, a light bulb went on. (Aside: if you haven’t read Gretchen’s book The Happiness Project I thoroughly recommend it).

The idea of keeping a one sentence journal is that you record the little stuff. The funny things your kids say, the food you currently love, the perfume or eyeshadow you were wearing, the DVDs that are on constant repeat and the music that’s making you dance around the kitchen. For example, my son has just come home from school full of his new discovery – Lidl – and how much cheaper than the corner shop it is, and how much stuff he is going to buy to flog at school with a 25% mark up. Let joy be unconfined – I have the new Alan Sugar on my hands. That’s the kind of stuff I want to record, not least because when he is a multimillionaire I’ll have all the material for a best selling book.

I tried lots of different ways to keep a one line journal – paper diary, a private blog being two – but found that I kept forgetting to put in entries. Days would go by, and then I couldn’t remember what the hell we did a week last Tuesday, or what that funny thing was I was going to write down.

A year ago I discovered Oh Life. Dead simple to sign up for, it emails me every day to ask what I have been up to. A virtual kick up the bum, if you will. You can set the time the email arrives, and when it pings into the in box, you hit reply, type what you want and attach a photo if you would like. In the email it reminds you what you were up to this time last week / month / year, so you can make the appropriate “aw” and “I can’t believe that was a year ago!” noises. All your posts build up on ohlife’s website, you can login to see them presented as a very simple blog format and even export them as a text file. In the last year, I’ve missed one day – when we were travelling overnight from the States. This is the only system that has ever worked for me and it’s all down to having the simplicity of receiving and sending an email every day. Free, and highly recommended.

(Oh, and they have just released a premium service for $2 a month. I’ll be looking into this to see what it offers).

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Cuticura anti bacterial collection

July 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Cuticura hand soaps and sanitisers

I recently attended the BritMums Live event, and one of the many exhibitors there was Cuticura. They’ve just released a new range of liquid soaps and hand sanitisers, and I was lucky enough to receive a sample set to try.

Trust me, I am a long way from being a hygiene obsessive, but as a family that often travels on public transport in London, anything that might add a little extra protection against picking up nasties is very welcome. The anti bacterial hand washes come in three scents (lime and bamboo, ginger and manuka honey and black pepper and pomegranate) and as well obviously cleaning your hands, boast an additional three hours protection against re-infection.

Even more impressively, the hand wipes and serums prevent re-infection for 8 hours, and are obviously great to carry around in your bag. There is a kids’ version of the serum too.

The products all smell nice, which is obviously important, are priced at a High Street level and feel nice on the skin. They are alcohol-free. I’ve not spotted them appearing in the High Street yet, but will be keeping an eye out for them.

(Samples provided by Cuticura, opinions are my own).

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NARS Fall 2012

July 3, 2012 By 2 Comments

I’ve just seen some images of the new releases over at Cafe Makeup. It all looks gorgeous, as ever with NARS, so hopefully we will be getting some of these goodies in the UK too.

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