Modest MAC Haul - Seedy Pearl and Sumptuous Olive

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Blogging has taken a bit of a back seat this week, falling victim to a more urgent but far less enjoyable demand on my time - huge numbers of job applications. However, a trip to MAC yesterday has put me back in touch with what is truly important in my life: Eyeshadow.

With the last of my store credit (left over from Christmas 2008 - never let it be said that I'm not thrifty sometimes), I picked up two permanent-line eyeshadows that have been softly purring my name.

Limited Editions have come and gone, but I remain convinced that most of MAC's best work resides in its permanent collection. That's why it's permanent I guess (although it's the LE stuff that tends to grab headlines). Passing over the warm shadows from Naked Honey and the Mineralize quads from Colour Craft (is it just me, or are these really sheer?), I picked out Sumptuous Olive, and Seedy Pearl. Two shadows that appeal to my long-standing love of all things duochrome.

Click through for swatches and descriptions.

Curl products: Tigi Catwalk Curls Rock, reviewed

A few days ago I announced my intention to use and review some of the curly hair specific products gathering dust in my drawer. Summer's a good time to do this, since walking around with naturally-drying wet hair doesn't necessarily result in instant pneumonia and icicles hanging from one's forelock.

So - Curls Rock Shampoo, Conditioner and Curl Amplifier. There are more products in the range (Curl Booster and Leave-in Moisturiser, I believe) but this trio is what I'll be assessing for you today. Click through for a firm but fair appraisal - and a picture of my "rocked" curls.

Juliette Has a Gun - a tale of two testers

On my left forearm - Juliette Has a Gun's fragrance "Miss Charming". A rosey-powdery confection of lacy subtlety and gentle blossom. Maybe a little cloying? Drying down, it gathers warmth, and a kind of bright, cheerful optimism. It's not quite right for me, but with skin chemistry to complement it this would be a sweet daytime scent for work and days out.

On my right forearm - Juliette Has a Gun's "Lady Vengeance". I should confess that it's already in the lead after one look at the label thanks to my fondness for Park Chan Wook's sophisticated and gritty thriller of the same name. Like the leading lady of this flick, the fragrance is dark and complex, with a spicy topnote peppering a cedary, burnished base with trailing tendrils of musk. It's ever so slightly rosey-sweet, too, like a distant cousin of "Miss Charming" perhaps, but definitely not a daytime scent. This is one for the evening, a scent to take out on the tiles.

Juliette Has a Gun is a niche perfume house that has been running since 2006, with an international following. There is a third "sister" to the two fragrances I mention here, "Citizen Queen". Find out more at juliettehasagun.com

Review and verdict - Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Liquid Lipstick.

Twelve hours have elapsed, and I am still wearing the Liquid Lipstick. I have eaten (including rich and oily Iranian pulauo, cinema popcorn, ice lollies), kissed, talked, and done quite a lot of checking in the mirror.

As you can see, the stuff is still here, 12 hours on, and Revlon are good as their word in this regard. It's looking a bit sparse in the centre of the lips, giving a hint of that charming end-of-evening "lip liner" effect. The colour is still pink, but has become matte and lost its sheen and shimmer. It's nice enough, but it's not quite the same as what I put on this morning.

The good news is that the tackiness went after the first couple of hours. During this initial period it was very sticky, and adhered quite keenly to my teeth a few times too. The lesson - apply this sparingly, because it is very slow to dry. Now that it has, it still feels kind of *there* on my lips, but it's not distracting or unpleasant.

All in all, I'd say this product is a great investment if you want a bold lip colour for a night out and don't want to risk smudging or having to reapply. One of the more vibrant shades like Top Tomato would be a good addition to your "once in a while" makeup shades. For more natural everyday shades, the plastickyness, tackiness and tooth-adherence mean that a regular gloss or lipstick would probably be easier and more enjoyable to wear.

Verdict - hard-working and good value, but stopping short of miraculous

On trial - Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Liquid Lipstick

Full Web 2.0 marks to Revlon for their integrated approach to product launching. The new Ultimate Liquid Lipstick is being offered free of charge to site visitors, in return for an online text or video review. The best reviewer wins the chance to blog exclusively for Revlon.



The product is worth £6.80, and claims to last for a full 12 hours, offering food-proof wear (I guess this means eating-proof) and a one-step application. It's the next step from those double-ended last-forever lipsticks that comprised one part plastic lacquer and one part clear gloss. I received "Premium Pink" (shade 010).

What's it like? Well, i'm wearing it now (see above). It's bright, shiny, feels slightly tacky on the lips (that'll be the "built in ultra-conditioning top coat"). Application is easy and quite satisfying - the high-pigment liquid just kind of slicks on and stays put after a moment's wait for drying. The formula is very "slippy", and has a vaguely plasticky smell to it.

My twelve hours has only just begun, and already I keep licking my lips and pressing them together to feel the tackiness. I've a feeling it's going to irritate me. We shall see...

Check back this evening to see my final verdict.

Review - Barry M Nail paint in Mint Green 304

Barry M's cool, kitsch mint green nail polish was a love at first sight thing for me. The colour brings to mind summer sundaes and sugary treats, but with a novel twist on the pinky-purply pastel norm. It set my sights on it when it was released a couple of months back. My covetousness was helped by the fact that it costs a mere £2.95, and that I got it as part of a 2 for £5 deal.

Application is a pretty average experience. The consistency is a little watery, although for this price, I'm not going to complain. With three coats, the colour achieves a satisfactorily opaque finish.

This is a shade that definitely needs a base coat - otherwise you risk a post-removal yellowy tint from the green dyes, and which looks anything but lovely. My solution is to put a coat of a pure white polish underneath. This protects your fingertips from staining and also adds a more opaque dimension, cutting down on the number of coats you need.

The end result is bright, but not garish, and pretty true to the shade you see in the bottle. Drying time is a bit of a drag - best to add a couple of coats of quick drying solution such as Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri topcoat over the finished nails.

Wear is good - I clocked up five days before I started seeing chips. Maybe due to the number of coats?

All in all, it's a great shade at a great price, with watery consistency being the only let-down. I'm happy with it for now, but if a more expensive brand released this shade in a more creamy, opaque consistency, I'd definitely trade up.

Review - Illamasqua Sirens nail polish in "Muse"

Now normally, nail polish isn't something I splash out on. Polish is polish, I tend to think, and I buy Barry M, Boots 17, or Bourjois. I expect them to chip in a couple of days. That's OK, then I get to try a new colour.

I'm colour-driven. I'm only lured out of my budget habits by the most exquisite shades or unusual duochrome finishes. (More about my love of duochrome in another post). Muse leapt out at me from Illamasqua's display for its totally unique hue - it's a pure, solid petrol blue/teal. Deep turquoise. A very warm toned blue, if you like. A kind of faded, but vivid teal, like the flank of a gorgeous old car. I've never seen anything quite like it in a nail polish - so I pounced.

The picture above doesn't really do the exact hue justice - for a truer representation, here's Illamasqua's own depiction of the shade.

The bottle is square glass with a glossy black plastic lid, and the brush is pretty typical - it's not a flattened brush or anything, it's pretty old-school, but it works. The colour inside is a medium consistency, smooth, not runny and not goopy. It goes on easily, and the pigment is very intense. Total, opaque glossy coverage in two coats. Drying time is quick as a result.

The lasting power is positively other-wordly (as is fitting for the Sirens theme). A week later, I still have glossy, perfect petrol-blue nails that look great with a surprising number of different outfits.

This is nail polish in another class - and I will be more than happy to invest in other Illamasqua shades, for colour, but also for the divine finish and application and the phenomenal lasting power.

Muse is limited edition with Sirens, which is the first ever Illamasqua LE collection (there will be 2 collections each year). It costs £12.50 from Illamasqua

Mmm, oatmeal!

A great product for dry skin should be moisturising, but not too oily. It should soften the skin but not smother it.

I've had real trouble finding a product that delivered the right level of skin-nurturing without turning my bod into an uncomfortable oil-slick.

*drumroll*... Until now!

The value of oatmeal was first revealed to me when I started using Lush's Ceridwen's Cauldron bath melt. it's a solid chunk of oatmeal and shea butter (among a cornucopia of other fragrant Lush-typical naturals) that slowly melts in the bath, releasing beautiful scent and turning the water into a softening milky soup of dematological joy. It comes wrapped in a muslin cloth that by the end of your bath has become, well, a bag of porage.

You rub this over your skin for mild exfoliation and extra moisture - the oats themselves release a smooth, proteiny substance that sits on the skin and reinforces the moisturising effect of the bathe.

Noticing how much nicer my skin felt after one of these, I began to use Aveeno body lotion - a very reasonably priced high street line with colloidal oatmeal as the active ingredient. It's the non-sticky, effective body lotion I'd been looking for, and so much the better for costing less than £5 per tube!

It's early days, but I'm already feeling much more confident in revealing my erstwhile flaky bits come summer thanks to the two products above. Less confident about the weather, but hey, can't have everything, right?

Review - MAC Studio Sculpt

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This was the week I finally bit the bullet and spent my Christmas MAC voucher. I elected to visit the Covent Garden branch (NB - MAC's gift vouchers are only redeemable in free-standing stores, not in department store concessions or online). One of the items in my sights was the new Studio Sculpt foundation from the Well Defined collection.

The general noises made online are that Studio Sculpt is a love it or hate it product. Some find it cakey, heavy and comedogenic. Others love the gel-based formula and medium buildable coverage. I was attracted by the addition of SPF 15, the easy application, and the packaging - a squeezable toothpaste-type tube with a wide screw cap and a precise nozzle. (At £22 a go, it's nice to know you won't be wasting any product.)

Isn't there something about the light in MAC stores? Something at once halogen-bright and candlelight deep. Maybe it's tungsten bulbs or maybe just the aura of cosmetic prestige. I don't know. But it makes everything look just a little more intense and perfect than it actually appears on the grey British street outside.

For this reason I enlisted the help of one of the makeup artists in choosing my shade of Studio Sculpt. There's a great range to choose from - the usual gamut from porcelain to espresso, with warm, cool and neutral casts catered for. My shade was NC15, and it was applied deftly by my makeup artist with a foundation brush. Out on the street, a hand mirror confirmed that the shade was spot on and the coverage thorough but happily natural-looking.

At home, I replicated the matte, smooth effect easily enough with fingertips, and was pleased to find that it lasted all day and wasn't too prone to transferring onto collar, gloves and other nearby fabric items. As a not-at-all-morning person I'm not a great wearer of foundation, preferring to just conceal and run out of the door. However with coverage good enough to stand alone without powder or concealer, I could definitely see this becoming a habit.

Verdict - a versatile foundation with plenty of coverage and easy wear

See and buy at www.maccosmetics.co.uk