The Makeup Mole

I love the design of this eyeliner – like a Sharpie pen for eyes, it has a nice sharp nib (not too floppy!) that when it works, does make lining eyes a cinch. Sadly however, whether it works or not appears to be optional.

The fantastic design is courtesy of the guru makeup artist, Pat McGrath, as she is the resident makeup artist at Procter & Gamble (who own Cover Girl.) And it is cheap (about $7 USD). But the after my experiences with it, the only way this dude is going near my kit is if Chanel, MAC and NARS cease and desist from production of liquid liner forever.

Friends of mine recommended it to me, and the first couple of times I tried it, I thought fab! This is ace! I gotta get me one of those! And off I went, forked out my seven dollars, and got it home (or back to my friend’s house actually). And you know what? Maybe for some it’s amazing and cat-lined Cleopatra kitty eyes in one easy stroke are all yours – instant transformation into Angelina Jolie – grrrr – or, like what happened in my case, I was Angelina Jolie for two days thinking wow, I have to post about this on my blog – and miraculously one week later it became thin, watery, anemic and grey, and not worthy of lining my cat’s dirty litter tray. As was the spare one Cover Girl thoughtfully provided for me. (I managed to get my hands on a double pack – two for the bin then, instead of one).

But my friends who recommended the product to me have had theirs for about two years and it’s still going strong, and reading reviews on the internet (like the ever useful MakeupAlley), I am not alone. So it turns out that it’s really luck of the draw. I know it’s only $7, which in the grand scheme of things is not that much, but I’d rather have given it to a homeless person or to save the moon bears than basically literally putting it in the bin.

And this is why I have a blog – because I think it happens a lot – women buy products that are crap, or crap for them, and then feel bad when they don’t look like Jennifer Aniston or Cheryl Cole. And they pay for the privilege. And it’s not good enough! We want products that work, and we’re happy to pay for them. But please help us buy the right ones that make us feel pretty, and not like a sucker, an idiot, or even worse, less gorgeous than when we came to you.

Quite frankly, that’s just not good enough, Cover Girl. Why do some of these eyeliners work, and others, not so much? And let me tell you, I have had far pricier brands’ liquid eyeliners do the same thing. Please don’t manufacture products that die after two uses. It’s just not on. It makes me furious because we as consumers are being taken for a ride, and to my mind, if you can’t make pretty much every product perfect, don’t bother manufacturing it. ‘Nuff said.

BIN IT!

And by the way , if you’re curious about why I talked about moon bears, I found out about this amazing charity the other day – it’s a charity that is restoring the sight of moon bears rescued from Chinese bile farms, where they are kept in captivity and milked for their bile (prized in some Chinese medicines). It’s as hideous as it sounds, but these veterinarians restore their sight. All together now – awww! If you’re interested in finding out more about the moon bears, the website is www.sightforsoreeyes.org.uk. I know where my next liquid eyeliner purchase money is going – and it’s to someone a lot cuter and fluffier than Cover Girl.

This is another new(ish) brand to the market place, and what I’ve tried from the range I find exceptionally high quality. The standout favourite for me has to be the Loose Powder though, as it’s super finely milled, lightweight, and cuts shine without adding surface texture (for powder nerds, you will know this is no easy task!)

The container is a jumbo-sized sifter, and unless you have a face like the Exxon-Valdez, it should last you years. The brand itself was created by a duo with an extensive background in the beauty and fashion industries, from the ethos that only the highest grade ingredients and the newest, best technology from around the world would be applied to each product – an interesting idea and one that so far the brand has lived up to.

The founders of Le Métier de Beauté discovered a lab with a research chemist that produced cosmetics of exceptionally high quality, and together they researched the globe for more chemists to match this high standard, in order to produce the best of every type of cosmetic. Their products are created wherever the best labs and factories happen to be – so far over twenty worldwide. Each product is produced in small batches to ensure that the quality is of the highest level, and they then field research it with makeup artists, beauty editors and other industry experts to ensure that it meets the most stringent demands. No wonder I like this powder so much!

The powder is paraben, talc, and oil-free and has been triple-milled, so it goes on super-fine but keeps the skin matte yet fresh looking. Up until now if I wanted to really mattify the skin I used Shu Uemura Matte loose powder, but now I’ve switched to Le Metier.

Rumour has it that Le Métier de Beauté will be collaborating with design duo Marchesa (whose makeup I had the pleasure of touching up at the last Fashion Rocks in London, and if the line is anywhere as gorgeous as she is, we’re all in luck!)

The only thing I don’t like about it is the color selection which I don’t think goes deep enough – as you know I like powders that cater to all skintones, and this range could do with a number four in it’s range of three colors. However sometimes products can surprise you, so I’m going to slip the darkest color into my kit for London Fashion Week and see how it fares.

So it’s BAG IT!

Oh how it pains me to write a negative review about Chantecaille – there are so many great products in their lovely, plant based botanical range – but this ain’t one of them.

I have tried this concealer quite a few times because I do so want to like it – their Future Skin foundation is one of my all-time favourites – but every time it’s just one big disappointment. I’ve tried it on a few jobs, and at home on myself, to no avail.

It’s a thick cream which I paint on with a small brush (as I do with all my concealers), and it doesn’t sheer out properly – it sits on the area you’re trying to conceal like concrete spackle. To be fair, it is a full coverage concealer and I know there is a market for this type of product, however it’s a bit hardcore to my tastes. With a bit more blending it improves, but it sort of clings to the under eye area, making it look powdery, cakey and dry – not cute! You know those pictures of celebrities you see every once in awhile when they look like a deer caught in the headlights, their under eyes flashing like radioactive fallout due to over-zealous concealer application? This is what I’m talking about. Even worse, it disappears after a couple of hours, leaving a pale, powdery residue on a hitherto corrected but now obviously UN-corrected dark circle. Great. Thanks.

They have another concealer called Bio-Lift Concealer which is supposed to be amazing, so I’ll need to give it a go soon in order to recover from the shock of a Chantecaille product I don’t like – really, it’s quite disturbing. I love their skincare, foundations, brushes and blushes – even their eyebrow pencils are pretty good. But the Total Concealer? Not so much.

BIN IT!

I have to admit to being a bit of a sucker for organic skincare – I like the advantages it has over its chemical counterparts and the general organic ethos of being kind to the planet whilst we’re kind to ourselves (and what’s more beautiful than that?)

Nude Skincare is one of the original players in this new and burgeoning market – they have an extensive range of pre and probiotic plant based botanical products, and the Age Defense Moisturiser is the one that has crept into my kit, replacing my old faithful Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Moisturiser.

I love the Age Defense because it leaves skin soft but not slippery, providing quite a nice matte base for makeup. It has orchid and the new wonder oil, argan to reduce wrinkles (not that any of my clients have those!), and hyaluronic acid keeps water in the skin where it belongs. And best of all it does it without parabens, sulphates or mineral oils, so none of the usual skincare nasties. I also love it because it is carbon neutral, ethically responsible with the ingredients it uses, and doesn’t test on animals (and with the recent surge in laboratory experiments on animals, this is increasingly becoming a concern of mine – there’s nothing uglier than unnecessary suffering).

The smell at first is a little earthy for those of us used to all the chemical stuff coming out of the lab, but actually now I’ve been using it for awhile I quite like it. And once you try organic skincare, I promise, you’ll be hooked. Kay is a huge advocate of it, regularly using the lip balm on her celeb clientele, and silkening Claudia Schiffer’s famous and endless legs in the Body Moisturiser. It just might be going on my wish-list for Santa this year – after all it is October, and I have been good!

Nude Age Defense Moisturiser – BAG IT!

www.nudeskincare.com

I’m quite a recent convert to liquid concealers, and the Estee Lauder Double Wear is the reason for the change. Normally I’m a die-hard cream concealer fan, but this gives great coverage in a thin liquid that really does stay all day.

All the Estee Lauder Double Wear products (and there are now quite a few as they keep expanding the range) really are quite frankly, bullet proof.  The concealer is best for under eye areas as I find it’s liquid-y slip is perfect for covering dark circles, but probably not what I would reach for first for a blemish (that particular prize would go to either Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage or Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer).

As part of my ongoing commitment to hardcore summer testing processes, I even took this concealer into the pool yesterday (and underwater) and there was still some kindly erasing my dark circles after an afternoon swim. That’s how long lasting it is!

If you’re not one of those ladies who likes to constantly be reapplying her makeup – let’s face it, who is? Even I’m keener on the application than the re-application process, and that’s my job. So anything that means less touch-ups is a winner in my book. Bag It!

In my ongoing quest to discover the ultimate waterproof mascara I did a raid on Walmart yesterday. It was a smash and grab affair of L’Oreal, Maybelline and Revlon, (and it has to be confessed, two li-los for the pool WITH cup dispensers, God Bless America!). But yesterday’s poolside experiment was less than successful.

Maybelline Lash Discovery has one of the ace-est brushes ever – it’s a shrunken wand that allows you to get to every single little lash, including the bottom lashes that can be fiddly with a regular brush (and if you can do that with the outsized monster brush of Diorshow mascara, more power to you because you’re more woman than I am!)

And for the bottom lashes it’s great to have waterproof mascara as this is where you tend to get smudging, from oils and eye blinking. However, if this is the mascara you’re wearing underwater you are in big trouble as it smudges. Not massively, but enough to look like an under-eye shadow that on me looks like a giant puffy eye bag, not dissimilar to a Krispy Kreme donut (something else I have been enjoying whilst in America. Mmm, donuts). However, not something I want on my face. So for me I’m going to keep the brush, but for the mascara it’s Bin It!

Mineral makeup, mineral makeup – it’s everywhere, and it’s being sold to consumers as the be-all and end-all of your skin and foundation woes. You would have to have been living under a rock (and then slathering it all over your face with a Kabuki brush) to miss out on this hot new trend.

Um, I just don’t get it. And it’s been explained to me a million times. It sounds like something dreamt up by a Scientologist, but when you buy into the craziness, also like it’s so weird that it COULD just be the greatest thing ever: Pure ground up rocks get buffed onto your face with a brush, all over, in a circular motion, and the more you buff the shinier it is and hence! The more like skin it becomes. So technically you end up with a face of perfect-looking skin. Problem is, what it actually looks like is a big old face of buffed-in shiny powder foundation, laid on with a trowel.

I’ll tell you what looks like skin – skin! Real skin, your skin, on its own. So if you have pimples or under eye bags, or pigmentation or rosacea, why not deal with those problem areas with a good concealer and a concealer brush, instead of covering all your beautiful skin with a faceful of grey sludge?

OK, I know people who love it, and they say it’s changed their life and that’s wonderful when makeup makes you feel good, but personally I just don’t get it. Apparently, it’s so natural you could sleep in it. Why on earth would you want to sleep in your makeup? The thought of having a layer of stuff on my face (even if it is a bunch of hypoallergenic crushed up rocks) whilst I’m sleeping makes me feel icky. The only time that should be happening is when you’re passed out and can’t find your face wipes after too much Wine Time!

It’s the biggest selling foundation in America, and one of the major brands even has a tour bus that travels the States, preaching to the unconverted about the wonders of shiny mineral makeup face.  So I know I’m probably going to get some flack for this post. Most major brands now have something mineral in their lines, including Prescriptives, MAC, Maybelline, Revlon, Clinique, L’Oreal, Laura Mercier, Lancôme, Dior and the originals which are Bare Escentuals and Bare Minerals.

I do know that its quick and easy application method is alluring for some, and certainly if you feel like you need to cover a lot of problem areas quickly, it could seem like a gift from the gods. Plus the fact that it doesn’t have a lot of the nasty chemicals that some of the conventional cosmetic brands do is positive. But as one of my clients with sensitive skin yesterday told me after she had been on (and off) the mineral makeup train, just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it won’t make you break out! Like anything with foundation and skincare it’s educated guesses and trial and error to find what works for you. So if that’s mineral makeup, you go girl! But for me, it’s heading to the big storage unit in the sky.

BIN IT!

This is officially my favourite eyeshadow set at the moment, and it’s been in my kit so long that it’s the old enamel blue and black stripes (and that’s old! I think I bought it pre-2000) and it’s still getting cracked out on a regular basis.

Why so good? Well it has the perfect nutmeg brown for starters, which has a slight bit of shimmer but only a touch (the other four shadows are matte). It has a cream, which I never use but hey at least it’s there if I ever need to do – well, a cream color, a gorgeous matte peach which has just the right amount of blue to it, not too coppery, an almost wine color which is lovely on blue and green eyes mixed with the brown, and my other fave, a mustard-y camel color which is just the wrong shade of tan to be oh so right.

They’re gorgeous mixed together or used separately but they are a kit staple, so for me it’s BAG IT!