BEAUTY

Haiku Review: Eau Thermale Avéne Tinted Compact 50 SPF

/ brightandbeautyfull / Leave a comment

When reviewing things
It helps to read directions.
Call me crazy, right?

I love French stuff: the food, the wine, the lifestyle, the whole santé thing that they do. I’d never heard of the Avène line before, but have had the chance to try several of their products. I particularly got a kick out of the Thermal Spring Water, but haven’t really made it a big part of my regime. I was spritzing myself with the pressurised spray because I was bored last year during the snowpocalypse. It helped break up the day, and I suspect my skin, housebound as I was, enjoyed the refreshing sensation.

We don’t suffer from a lack of moist air in Ireland, so it doesn’t seem necessary to carry around a container of hydrotherapy in my handbag. Neither is the sun much of an issue, but SPF enthusiasts will insist that any sun is sun that is going to age us and give us skin cancer, so when the Eau Thermale Avéne Tinted Compact 50 SPF came through the letterbox, I thought, ‘Better safe than sorry.’

Of course, I didn’t bother reading exactly what it was so when I tried to use it as pressed powder, uh yeah, it didn’t work. Because it is foundation. Unaware, I swiped it over a face that was already sporting foundation. Crazy! I put it aside and forgot about it, scarred momentarily by my misuse of it.

Then one day I was running late, and I wanted to cut out the middle woman, meaning the time-consuming dispensing of foundation and then application of it onto my face > yeah, wha’? This makes sense to me, okay? Remind me to tell you about the time I used to take a cab four blocks to work — And so! So I picked this up, and using the pad that cunningly rests in the hinge between the top of the compact and the flip-up mirror, had a flawless face in three-ish swipes of product. I’ve never actually counted. I’m trying to reconstruct in my mind’s eye… okay… more like four-ish.

I brought this with my on my hols because it’s compact and effective and easy. It looks amazing, and it lasts and lasts. It’s also got a laundry list of excellent qualities — protection against UV radiation, free radicals, and sweat, as well as offering irritation reduction — but frankly the most important thing to me, at the end of the day, is that I don’t want to have to be touching up excessively throughout said day. This is a matte finish that combines the best effects of foundation and powder, and I am quite sad that I am near to using it up.

€20/£15/$35

Note to Future Self: Bung These in the Bag

/ MANY BRAVE FOOLS / Leave a comment

As a day-to-day routine, I never took to using Elemis Cellular Recovery Skin Bliss Capsules.

It’s not because they are no good, it’s because they are so good, and I tend to hoard them.

They work like this: there are sixty capsules in this delightful package, with thirty rose-scented for morning, and thirty lavender-scented for night; these are, logically and respectively, pink and green. They smell lovely and feel soothing, and the clean Elemis packaging makes your bathroom look like a fancy spa.

The thing is, they do feel a bit stingy, and the capsules seem too small to use every day. Like, you’ll go through these in a heartbeat. So I tend to ‘save’ them for when my skin feels especially rough, when I need a pick-me-up, when I forget I’ve got them and go, ‘Oh! These!’

I know I’m not going to get much benefit from them, these tiny little pockets of anti-aging and pollution-counteracting goodness, if I don’t actually use them consistently, but cast your eye over the price and you’ll see why I’ve gone all Silas Marner over this ish. Eep!

It occurs to me that under these circs, I could have brought them along on the trip, as a treat for my travel-stressed complexion. So I have made this note to my future self, and since I most likely won’t be using them on the reg, they can look forward to the next journey, whenever that may be.

€75/£58/$105

BREAKING NEWS: On Saturday, Elemis are having a QVC show, on air at midnight, 1am, 4am, 7am, 8am, 11am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm. QVC available on available on Sky Digital channel 640, Freesat channel 800, Freeview channel 16 and Virgin TV channel 740. Yay!

New Year’s Beauty Resolutions

/ brightandbeautyfull / Leave a comment

>Get more treatments Yeah. Every time I get a treatment — a massage, a facial, whatever — I think, ‘I really need to get more treatments!’ And then I don’t get another treatment until my next one… which is always a significant time from the last. So, yeah. <This one will never happen. Way to think positive, I know…

>Stop hoarding! It many ways, it is worse when you get a bunch a sample products in all the time. Yes, this reeks of ‘Ooh these diamond shoes, they pinch!’, but the thing is, I’ll try something and love it, and then have to immediately start using something else, and then the first thing gets shelved, and I save it for when the second {third, fourth} thing runs out… except maybe the third thing is great, too? So 2012 is going to be the year of USE IT UP! <Yeah, that one will be a bust in a heartbeat.

>Purge and Prune I am actually pretty good at this. I have heard that products don’t ‘go bad’ or ‘go off’ the way we’ve been told, but nevertheless, there is nothing to be gained from having a load of half-used mascaras lying about. Into the bin! will be my rallying cry. <I can do this!

> … I hate making resolutions. I can’t think of anything else. Any ideas?

Sweet Sixteen: Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Multi-Use Body Oil

/ brightandbeautyfull / 1 Comment

I am sensing a trend.

I really like things that smell nice.

I don’t know, maybe there are people out there who don’t care about how things smell? Or disagree with me as regards what constitutes a pleasant fragrance? I can understand the latter, but the former? No way.

Anyway, here’s another extraordinarily lovely-smelling thing, and it is also a thing that comes in another version with sparkle in it. Can it be more perfect?

I love it so much, I can actually spell Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse without looking it up. Continue reading →

Sweet Sixteen: Benefit Erase Paste

/ brightandbeautyfull / 1 Comment

Sometimes, you just get tired of product, right? Of having to use like eight million things at time — primer, foundation, powder, and who knows what else?

I know: sacrilege! But honestly, why in the world do I need to put on, say, concealer, when I don’t have dark circles? Why bother? Surely foundation is sufficient?

I staunchly stood by this conviction until I got my brows waxed in the Benefit Brow Bar in Brown Thomas. Continue reading →

Sisterhood of the Travelling Products: The Winnowing

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Hmmm. Is this really any improvement a’tall?

Three lip things — there’s the Lush Latte yoke that didn’t make the last photo; one foundation {although I expect the Eau Thermale Avéne compact I’m reviewing will slip itself into a coat pocket}; one hair thing, one brow thing… a new thing {upper left} that came in the fabbbb Kiehl’s gift box that my sister-in-law gifted…

I don’t know, I guess this is a good edit.

The long shiny rectangular yokie is Clinique’s Black Honey Colour Surge Eyeshadow Quad, must share my opinion on that officially. Hint: it is excellent. The product, that is, although my opinion is excellent, too.

Well, I think I did do an okay job:

Yeah, fine. Oh, and I googled the Dermalogica Multivitamin Power Recovery Mask {bottom left} and they’ve redesigned the packaging. Yup, I knew it was old, but…

Sweet Sixteen: Yes To Carrots Exfoliating and Soothing Mud Mask

/ brightandbeautyfull / 1 Comment

I can be a real snob when it comes to product. Growing up, I read too many magazines, and started to get a bit sniffy about cheapy cosmetics at an early age.

I couldn’t afford to be as posh as I wanted, but it didn’t stop me from dropping some serious dough whilst in art college: I had found a special something at a fancy Manhattan shop, on the Upper East Side {which is saying something, since I went to Pratt in Brooklyn} and — holy cow! early onset is pre-empted as I just remembered the name of it. I was struggling to remember what it was called and I couldn’t bring it up for the life of me until I started writing. The special something was a mud mask by Princess Marchella Borghese, who is still around. I would welcome any samples of her Fango: Active Mud for Face & Body for a future review, just to see if it is still as good as I remember it to be. The container was similar to what it is now, a luxuriously heavy glass jar; the mud was scented to just the correct degree, and it was my first experience of true self-care indulgence.

Whoops, down the rabbit hole! The point of the above was that having been exposed to a serious mud mask, anything else wouldn’t do. I like to keep an open mind, and have found several non-muddy masks to be effective, but to me, there is nothing like having my face squinched by drying product. I am sure there are anti-ageing arguments against this experience, but feck ‘em. I love a good squinch {TWSS} and in these modern times, I have found something that satisfies this need entirely.

The Yes To line has branched out to include Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Blueberries, but to me, Carrots will always be the cornerstone of the brand. These all-natural, crap-free products care for every part of you, and in general, they work as well as crap-laden products — and come on, let’s be honest, in general, most natural products simply don’t work. The cleansers don’t cleanse, the mositurisers don’t mositurise, or else they require so much more product to effect change that it’s not cost effective.

Or maybe our standards have become too laden with crap, and they work just fine, and we have only to adjust our expectations.

Expectations need not be adjusted when it comes to YTC’s C the Difference: Exfoliating and Soothing Mud Mask. It’s made from Dead Sea mud, and it’s rich and thick, yet applies smoothly — it’s not like you’ll be trowelling this on. Fragrance-wise, it is pleasant without being too perfume-y, and in this regard is one up on the Borghese, as far as memory serves < and it serves pretty darn well, considering. I tend to leave it on for way longer than the 5 minutes prescribed, but that’s me, the squinch-lovin’ beauty blogger, so take that with a pinch of Dead Sea salt.

Ooh, I’d love a dose of this right about now: I’ve just woken up and my face feels like it’s flaking off. The post-mask C skin feels shiny and clean and new, and I’d love that right now. I’d also love to run around the house scaring my nephews with my crazy mud face. Ah, well, there’s always next time.

€12.99/£12.35/$17

*Scarlet*

/ brightandbeautyfull / Leave a comment

Not! Because I can’t be! I reviewed that crazy picture just a moment ago and realised that I forgot to pack blush.

I don’t usually go for full make up when visiting the family home, couch surfing, so it did indeed come as a shock. I have been out of the house, and even went to a party, and I must have been in some sort of holiday fog to have not noticed that I had failed to bring along my youthful glow.

Perhaps the joy of the holidays had supplied it, and I had no need for artificial enhancement.

…

Anyway! Here’s a link to my Evening Herald column; I’ll just be over here in the corner, pining.

Clean the Slate: FACE Atelier Melt

/ brightandbeautyfull / 2 Comments

Well, I was doin’ this wrong.

I don’t know what I was thinking, but I thought that the way to use FACE Atelier Melt was to squirt it into my palm and use it as I would a cleanser. This was not a completely disastrous approach, and it was especially good at wiping out the brow makeup; as regards the mascara and eyeliner, not so much.

The thing is, it is an oil-based yokie, and I am only converting to the notion of putting oily on the face. Blame adolescence — and sure, what blame can we not lay at the feet of the teenage years? — but I had a serious case of shiny face and the very idea of reverting to said shiny makes me want to cry.

And yet… I have been using balms to excellent effect, and they are not even oily, they are greasy! Cue nightmare. I am guessing, because I am on a roll and won’t pause to google, that oil-based products are the ultimate in hydration. Common sense, when you pause in your scarred-for-life narrative to have a think.

Right, so. Where was I. Okay. So, I have decided to use this for the next few weeks, and last night had the brainwave to dispense it on a cotton pad and use it like I would use any other make up removal product. Like, wow? <I blame the jet lag. Although when I was doin’ wrong before the transatlantic flight…

THE POINT IS: Totally superfantastic removal with the Melt. Gentle, effective, and thorough. There was some residual product, and I wasn’t sure if I should massage it into my skin. It felt like it would feel good to do, except that there was maybe still make up lingering. And I forgot to pack toner* [gasp!] so I ended up wiping away as much as I could, and went through way more cotton pads than usual.

That last is a bit pesky, but not a deal-breaker. I found some cotton wool, in pleats, at a €2 shop {remember when they were €1 shops? Ah, sure} While I avoided those in the past as well — because the cotton seems so loose, and therefore more likely to get into your eye — the combination of the two is quite a fierce cleaning duo.

You learn something new every day.

*Yeah, I forgot the toner, but worse, I forgot the clarifying lotion and I have to say, whilst I saved myself some space in the suitcase [but not all that much] I’m never going to make that choice again. It makes me yearn for the next winner in the Sweet Sixteen Sweepstakes, which will premiere tomorrow…

€29 on cloud10beauty.com/£24/$35