Beauty Archives - Page 77 of 88

Katie Beauty

A wrinkle pill?

I spotted a tweet about a new product from Dove Spa which claims to be a pill to eradicate wrinkles, from the inside out.

DOVE SPA STRENGTH WITHIN – SOLD OUT

The exclusive pre-sale batch will launch onto www.dovespa.co.uk this morning, but with a waiting list already exceeding supply; those chasing eternal youth will have to wait for the official launch date in mid October.

Here’s the blurb from the Dove website

Here at Dove Spa we’re for treatments that actually work: that do what they’re supposed to. So we’re really pleased to announce the launch of our new anti‐wrinkle supplement Strength Within, clinically proven to reduce lines and wrinkles with greatest efficacy showing on deeper wrinkles.

Collagen reduction in your skin already starts in your mid‐30s and it can drop up by to 40% between the ages of 35‐55. This is a critical factor leading to a loss of firmness and the formation of wrinkles.

Complement your Dove Spa creams and treatments with Strength Within to combat the signs of ageing from both inside and out.

To achieve the desired results 3 capsules of Strength Within should be taken daily over a 14 week period.

Each box of Strength Within contains 28 days worth of capsules and we recommend purchasing 3 boxes of Strength Within to follow the 14 week program.

Read what the New Scientist think of the beauty breakthrough, including contributions from medical experts:

Richard Weller, a dermatologist at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, UK, applauded Unilever for testing the product against a placebo and for saying it will publish the results in full.

“What matters is the clinical data, and they show there are reduced wrinkles in the treated group,” he says. “I’m not aware of any [other] oral treatments that do this.”

Will you be trying the Strength Within tablets or just write it off as a fad? I’ll probably give it a try but keep a very very open mind about it!

Katie Beauty

Bargain Make Up : Yay or Nay?

Lets get this out the way… I love high end make up. I own a LOT of high end make up. I make no apologies for this, I work hard and buy make up. I have super super sensitive skin and have truly tried most high street offerings of products and have suffered some of the most painful and traumatising breakouts and reactions possible.

I try not to feature very much high end products as I know my readers like to read about a more purse friendly products, and who wouldn’t. I love a bargain and if I can find a gem for £2 rather than £32, by god am I going to keep buying the £2 one ( example : Natural Collection waterproof mascara is the ONLY waterproof I will consider wearing!)

In general I hate Primark.. With a passion that is usually reserved for not very nice people.. But occasionally, just occasionally I will fight my way through the masses to visit the accessories area of Primark. It was here, months and months ago that I first discovered Primark make up. I picked up a liquid lipstick and fell in love. I believe it was £2 and was just brilliant. Sadly, I have tried to buy more of these lippies but like most other stock, once they’ve gone they’ve gone.

On our wonderful Girls Day Out northern blogger bash in Leeds, I found myself again wandering round the make up stands in Primark. This time I came away with 2 leopard print bronzers and a leopard print bronze gloss pen.

We all know I love leopard print right?

Each item was a bargainous £1! £1! Blimey! These had 1 of 2 choices… to be great or absolutely rubbish… which way were they going to go?

The bronzers are humungous aren’t they? They are larger than the palm of my manhands! They do look a bit scary on first look though, the gold foil powder used to highlight the leopards spots is downright scary if you aren’t super light handed until it has blended in but if you apply lightly you are rewarded with a super pigmented, bronzing powder. The gold foil powder provides an ultra shimmer but underneath you have a lovely yellow or pink toned bronzer, depending which one you buy.

I found out the hard way about the foiled powder so after my first go with it, I used a cotton pad to dust away most of the top layer which left me with the rich warm colour underneath. I really couldn’t decide which of the 2 bronzers to buy which is why, thanks to my purchasing enabler of the day, I had to buy both… along with the lipgloss.

The lipgloss is a moderate product.. Not the best but by a long way from the worst I’ve ever tried. A lovely glimmery bronzey gold shade which is perfect for Summer or wearing during the day for a sheer shimmery colour to pair with a natural look or even a smokey eye.

What I don’t understand is peoples hesitation to try cheaper make up. I know I love high end but I am always willing to try these bargains out providing they match my needs. We all love MUA and George from Asda right well what’s so different to Primark make up? It’s clearly taken a lot of inspiration from brands such as Benefit and Too Faced so if the original products are out of your price range then why not try the primark version? They have to be safe for use, so for the sake of £1-£2 why not take a shot?

Is it a brand image thing? If they had a proper cosmetics stand displaying products in a traditional manner rather than in clear baggies (like H&M may I add) would you be more likely to buy them? Would testers help?

You can find bargain make up everywhere these days if you know where to look and have perserverance!

– Supermarkets – Often reduce old season unused stock down to great prices to ensure it is sold
– Cheapsmells.com – cosmetics on there are always at a great price
– The cosmetics company store – Cheaper MAC, Bobbi Brown, Estee Lauder amongst others that fall under the mother company of Estee Lauder. Bodycare, toiletries, hair and perfume also sold

– ASOS – Bargains are always to be found on ASOS, from end of season stock, to “odd” colours and hard to find goodies. Free delivery to boot too!

I do recommend avoiding Ebay due to the sheer volume of fake counterfit goods, if you want to read more about this, you can read Fi’s post about it here on her blog www.makeupsavvy.co.uk about fake products.

Katie Beauty

Bare Minerals Master Class evening

I wasn’t sure whether I was going to write this up or not.. but here goes, its a long wordy one, without pictures so grab a coffee!

Last week, I, along with the lovely Daniella (www.madame-gourmand.com) and Ellie (missyellieuk.blogspot.com), was invited to the Bare Minerals Master Class event. What an amazing pleasure it was to be invited to a press event & Master Class held in the north east of england.. We need more stuff like this without having to go to that there London!

We arrived at the venue to be greeted by the wonderful Kate & Anne from B.M who got us seated and gave us some champagne (Orange for me, booo!). Once settled we got to take a look at the new skin care range from the brand as well as meeting Sarah Jane Froom, who, let me tell you… is quite possibly the most warm, engaging person I have ever met! What a wonderful brand ambassador to have!

Let’s face it ladies, we have all been presented with these “big wigs” before and they have turned out to be so far up their own bum it was unreal… not with the wonderful B.M ladies. SJ was a delight.

We looked at the new products, chatted like old friends and then got to sample the pure Active Soil Complex which has over 70 micro minerals packed in to it and makes up the key ingredient to the new B.M skin care line. The Active Soil Complex has been found to have more antioxidants than famed high level fruits such as Blueberries or Pomegranates. I have to say, I was a little bit frightened to try the yellowy syrup but on sniffing it, it smelled like Appletize and had an odd smokey/peaty taste that isn’t all too disimilar from Islay Whiskies. Nice to know I was putting a little bit of goodness in to my tummy… which would nicely counter balance that nommy little cakes we were about to eat!

I had a few stand out favourites of the skin care line and I can’t wait to get my paws on them… it might instantly make me beautiful (miracles DO happen y’know). I have blogged seperately about 2 that I now have, but out of the products on display, I absolutely loved the Renew & Hydrate eye cream. A beautifully rich, soothing thick eye cream that I am pleased to say had no scent that I could detect which is fab for sensitive eyes. I had no redness or flare ups after I dabbed it around my eye aream but it did leave a delicate soft shimmery sheen which I felt perked my eye up… especially after the 10hr work day I’d already done! The perk of this cream is you can definitely apply it over AND under make up making mid day touch ups on tired eyes a walk in the park.
Listening to SJ talk through these products it was clear that not only was she promoting the brand, you could tell she had a passion for the products and not just reading a lack lustre script. It certainly made a refreshing change!

After an introduction to the new products, we were whisked through to join the other ladies for the Master Class. We took our seats, fuelled with more champagne (OJ again for me!) and indulged in the most delicious tiniest cakes the department store (Fenwicks) makes! Yum! For each attendee to the Master Class, we were given a blank personalised make up plan for the B.M MUA to record our colours and preferences on for future reference, a day glo pink pencil (mine lives on my desk!), and a beautiful pink friendship bracelet which Daniella and I had only minutes before been admiring in the Links of London concession. Really nice touch as all the ladies who were attending were already massive B.M fans, it was sweet for them to ‘get something back’ for their brand loyalty!

SJ worked her make up wizardry on a willing volunteer and Daniella and I both couldn’t believe how stunningly natural the lady looked. The volunteer was in her late 50s and she just looked so radiant and groomed. Such a great transformation with minimal products.

From the master class, I only picked 3 key points from the master class :

1. Perfect contouring
For the perfect contour shape, use a sweeping B and E motion across the face. I was quite sceptical of this until I watched SJ do the actions on the volunteer and you really could tell where she had defined the face. Not as harsh as contouring under the cheek bones in its effect, but still very noticeable and subtle.

Abysmal Paint skills but you get the idea?

2. 3 tips to look younger
– Brows : Make sure brows are defined, tidy and framing your face in a shape to suit you
– Conceal : Concealing and highlighting the areas either side of the bridge of your nose and under eyes can brighten your face and make you look younger
– Blusher : The perfect toned blushed for your skin, the perfect finish (matte / lustre / shimmer) and the correct application can do wonders for your make up to make you look younger.

3. Juicy Pout
To boost what you got, lightly buff a concealer or foundation over your lips when applying make up so that when you get to apply your lip products, you will have a clearly defined cupids bow and have an ethereal glow around your lip line which will enhance your kisser.
These might seem like things you’d already think of but you’d be surprised at the people in the audience that clearly hadn’t though / learnt these tips!

I realise this post is a bit waffley but I know a few of my lovely followers on Twitter had asked for a write up of the event so here it is!

We followed the Master Class with a B.M ‘Make Under’ which was nice and relaxing, although a little bit scary to let someone else take over my make up! Eep! As a result, I found a new lipstick and blush that I can’t wait to get back to the counter to buy!!

B.M apparently launch a new product almost every month and have regular Master Class sessions through out the year and across the country. If you can get yourself to one of these classes, I thoroughly recommend it. Great fun, interesting and the cost of the class is redeemable against products you (inevitably) buy!

I must add, Daniella and I finished the night with Cuban cocktails in a pub local to her.. Of course mine was a non alcoholic lychee mojito but we managed to get 2 £5.95 cocktails for £4… I need to go out with this lady more often!

Katie Beauty

Green People Intensive Repair Shampoo

Since I took the plunge to try and stay 99% SLS free (concession made for my purple toner shampoo to boost the white in my hair.) I have tried a selection of Sodium Lauryl Sulphate free shampoos.

Until recently I was using a combination of Naked and Bedhead’s Some like it Hot but I felt both were a little lacking and a bit hard to ‘work with’. Obviously as they are non-lathering shampoos, I just felt like I wasn’t getting even coverage across my hair and I found myself using more than I probably should have been just to make me feel happy I had coverage.

The Green People SLS free shampoo is a foaming product with natural foaming ingredients and I have to say, it is an absolute godsend! I feel like my entire head of hair is getting the same equal wash and it is being left feeling almost squeeky clean with no product residue or build up, which as a pale blonde haired lady, that is very important to me as residue is very dulling.

The shampoo leaves my hair clean and fresh smelling, with a very faint ‘natural’ smell which is apparently Geranium & Sandalwood… which is great for my sensitivity to fragrances. The shampoo has also soothed my sore eczema flare ups in my scalp… and as much as I shouldn’t admit this naughty fact, but after a box of home dye, it doesn’t aggrevate the already tender scalp.

The Intensive Repair shampoo is made without SLS/SLES, Parabens, phthalates and artificial fragrances so it’s pretty pure and gentle! It’s not cheap.. but quality counts and a little goes a long way

You can buy the Green People Intensive Repair Shampoo from their website HERE

Do you use any SLS free hair products?

Katie Beauty

Batiste Nude Powder

I love Batiste dry shampoo spray. I use it solely on the root area of my fringe. I like the texture it gives my fringe and despite my hair not being dirty, it seems to absorb the oils from my forehead skin and hands…. And I also absolutely LOVE it because it tones my roots down when I’m inbetween dying! That’s the best bit for me to be honest!

The only downside is that rate of knots that I go through a can. When you think a can is £2.99, I use one of those a month, meh, maybe I’m too over generous with my applications, I don’t know. I even tried the Superdrug own brand and I honestly felt like my hair felt greasier after using it! Yuk!
The Nude powder is very easy to control, you can either tip a little bit in to your finger tips to work in to your hair, or use the fine tip nozzle to apply a very light dusting directly to the roots, leave to settle as usual then work through.

I am absolutely loving the non aerosol version. Admittedly it’s not as quick but I can lose an extra minute to potentially save me some money every month!

To say I love the Nude powder… I have just been and bought a tiny handbag sized batiste which are currently on offer in Boots for £1 (with 5p of every £1 purchase going directly to Macmillan Cancer). Will either keep this in my travel bag or in my actual handbag for touch ups at home.

I think I am a new convert to non-aerosol Batiste… no scent too!!!