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Snap! Judgement: Lush Happy Happy Joy Joy Conditioning Hair Perfume
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LUSH
Face of the Day: *Not* Photographed on the 46A
Hmmm: I always seem to do this on days that I am wearing Hourglass Cosmetics Veil Fluid Makeup SPF 15 in Sand, along with the Mineral Veil Primer. Well, that tells you all you need to know, I reckon. I always feel like I need to show off my face when I am wearing that primer/foundation combo.
Like the blush? It’s IsaDora Glow Stick in Rose Bud, a tiny wee cream-blush-in-a-twist-up-tube that I am {is}adoring at the moment. It is very soft, and applied on the apple of the cheek, it makes you look like a Victorian Valentine. as
As if my cheeks weren’t entirely apples!
Brows are my usual HD Brows, for which Carter Beauty can take credit. I have defined them with my favvvvourite new brow thing, Smashbox Brow Tech To Go. Google it now, ladiez, it is so good: it comes with a brush-in-gel to set them up, and then an angled pencil to fill ’em in. Proper review to come — hey, haven’t done a Haiku Review in yonks. There’s a plan!
Eyelashes are via VenusLash by Venus Medical. Oh, there will be updates there.
A bit of Clinique eyeshadow, the fabbalis Black Honey, which never, ever goes wrong.
Lips = a combo of Lush Liquid Lipstick in Confidence, with some Clinique Chubby in Chunkiest Chilli on top. This solves two problems I have, one with each: the Lush is too dry, and the Clinique doesn’t have the staying power I’ll ned today. Together, they are perfect.
Okay! Ready to face the day with the #FOTD!
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Festive Form: All the Things in LUSH
First of all, Mr Punch soap has gin in it.
It’s €4.25 for 100g, which, depending upon your relations, may be just right, or… or not. In addition to the gin, there are cucumbery, melony notes, that all activate once you hop in the bath.
Gin is made from juniper berries, which are no-brainer ingredients for the natural cosmetics company, since juniper berries are natural and grow on… bushes?*
Here are some samples from the extraordinarily comprehensive, beautifully-wrapped line. Funnily enough, two out of the three contain a gin-based product!
Christmas Party {€10.25} has no gin in it. But still, it looks fun, and would be perfect for a young lad, or a Secret Santa work thing.
Jolly Hollydays {€32.95} comes with six products, including an Each Peach massage bar, and 100gs of our ould pal, Mr Punch.
‘Twas The Night {€64.95} is so, so pretty. It is the essence of a sophisticated Christmas, via its packaging alone. Your loved one can re-purpose the box as well, it is so well made – which it would have to be, since it is chock full of stuff. I’ve raved about the Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner in the past, and there’s a massive Angels Delight soap moon, too. And! you guessed it: the thing that has the gin in it.
No gin was partaken in the writing of this post, which I am sure you were wondering.
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*Bushes and trees.
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I don’t even like gin.
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Confident Liquid Lipstick from LUSH: How’d it Do?
In contrast to the other Lush Liquid Lipsticks I have reviewed, this onewas not as drying. Behold: Confident
It was rather more… liquidy, which made it a little more difficult to apply. It was like a weak gloss with super high pigment. Kind of weird, but in the end, it looked well.
I must say that whilst I felt confident in its form, I wasn’t quite as to its function. This is a going-out-to-meetings-in-which-I-will-decline-the-cup-of-tea lipstick. The sort I’ll wear when I’m moving around town and not alighting in one place for long.
This is hummingbird lippy.*
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Lush Liquid Lipstick is part of the Emotional Brilliance line. Go to lush.co.uk and play the cool interactive game!
*Er. Wha’????
What I Was Going to Put on My Face Yesterday
And what actually got there.
I suspect that a lot of people who don’t like to wear make up are put off by how much you have to put on. I totally get that! I’d argue about the ‘have to’ so much as ‘choose to’, and particularly with the advent of BB creams — more about them, someday, hopefully before they get replaced by something else even more allegedly magical — you don’t really have to trowel on the slap to get a look that is ‘you’, just all shined up.
And yet. Even I was rather appalled when I laid out everything I thought I’d put on my face yesterday afternoon:
In the words of my very first Mac Classic: Eep! We’ve got your Bourjois 123 Perfect Foundation, which is on tap to review for my tried & tested column in the Herald; Sisley Instant Primer, which I didn’t fancy so much the first time I tried, but wanted to give it a second chance; new Maybelline Colossal Smoky Eyes Mascara; a gorgeous palette from Yves Saint Laurent, as seen on new representative Face, Jessica Chastain — this will make me look just like her; a YSL illuminator pen thing, for around the eyes; Sisley lipgloss, with the option of the NYC lipstick; Dr Hauschka Illuminating Powder, even though I am not a huge fan of loose powder… And a whole bunch of eye pencils that I can’t even see what they are. And an AVON lipstick I found in a coat pocket. And the Shine So Bright from Lush.
No blush, I thought, since it was going to be all about the Smoky Eye.
Also not pictured, the combination I am using on the brows at the moment as the HD Brow dye wears off: Speed Brow by BeneFit, and the super excellent AVON Glimmerstick Brow Definer in Soft Brown.
Then I lost my nerve.
See, I had to go to the theatre to review a show, and it was opening night at the Abbey, and there would be loads of people I knew, and I didn’t want to pitch up looking like Morticia Addams. I don’t have a lot of confidence in my Smoky-Eye-creating ability, so I ditched the entire plan, and feel back on the one I am liking so much at the moment:
Red lipstick. Can’t put much else on the face when you are working that, IMHO. Went with everything as planned, primer-foundation-powder-wise, used the Maybelline mascara > LOVE, and then plucked up my old-faithful eyeliner, L’Oréal Superliner Luminizer for Blue Eyes, which, in fairness, seems to luminize. I also ended up using a Wella concoction on The Hair, I think it is so old it is not even on eBay. Still works though!
I am very impressed by the Bourjois foundation, judge as best you can from the pixilley iPhone image. I was underwhelmed by the Dr Hauschka, and ended up giving myself a going over with a new Clarins palette, Odyssey Face Palette, which: more about that later, too.
Now. The thing is, I don’t carry all this around with me in the course of a day. For an evening out at the theatuh, one bring only one’s powder, black pencil to touch up the liner on the upper inner eyelid, the brow pencil and, of course, the lipstick/gloss. One means, come on! Don’t need to lug around the whole face, as it were.
I’m going to declare a Smoky Eye Day, and stay in and practice. There will be pictures to prove it happened…
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The Red Lipstick: No-Fail Glamour
It’s a paradox, the auld red lippy: the rest of your face can be very low maintenance, but the the lip itself? Needy, needy, needy!
Maybe it’s just me, but all I think about when I am wearing red lipstick is the red lipstick. Is it still opaque? Has it started bleeding around the edges? Do I need to touch it up? Do I need to wipe it off and start all over?
{Yeesh, hope it’s not just me, that sound totally craaaaay.}
Below, a combination of Lush Liquid Lipstick in Decisive and Maybelline SuperStay 10H Tint Gloss in Endless Ruby.
Why the two, you ask? Well. The love I bear for Decisive, it can’t be expressed, except that it dries too dry, if you know what I mean? And as regards the touching-up issues, the bottle is grand for when you nip into the loo, but if you’re at an event and you’ve just munched on a few canapés, and you want to do surreptitious repair? Not great.
That’s one way in which the Maybelline helps. That funky applicator ensures great coverage, and since you’ve defined the lips properly with the Lush, you don’t have to worry about the edges so much.
Plus, the gloss is a real lift, as the Lush is a somewhat matte. Sure, if matte’s your thing, you will be in No-Gloss Nirvana, but me, I like a little bitta shine, in general.
Very little else on the face: foundation, illuminating powder, looks like maybe some blush {which comes and goes as I remember to bother to put some on}, mascara. My HD Brows, via Carter Beauty help loads as well.
These are not the only reds I’ve got on tap — oh, no. Don’t be ridic. I’m on a red lippy roll at the moment, and I’ll be back with more. Because some are more orange, some are more blue, some are matte like the Lush, some are sheer, like the Giorgio Armani I’m going to take to the theatre tonight… If you can bear the fuss, The Red Lipstick really is a glamour guarantee.
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Lush: €17.95/£14.50/$22.95
Maybelline: €11.49/£6.99/$8.99
Four out of Five Senses: Lush Shine So Bright
How weird is this?!? I got some samples of the Lush’s new hair care line in the post today {that’s not the weird bit} and it occured to me, Hey, I haven’t done one of those Snap! Judgement columns in a while, and I thought I might do one, just on the two bits I got today. Then I opened the wee tin of Shine So Bright, and thought — we are almost there, hang on — This smells amazing! I should do that thing with the four out of five senses!
Which was a million years ago, and I had forgotten what I called it, so I searched the site and whoa! The first and only time I’d done it, it was for a Lush product!
It is totally weird!
Or not, as scent is the sense that Lush leads with. Insert comment about walking by one of their shops here: ______________. So, maybe not as weird as I think, and not so weird when you consider that it was my own thinking down my own neural pathways. If you had come up with this idea, that would have been completely weird!
Right, so.
Looks like a little lip balm, or one of the solid fragrances they do. I always find these hard going, at least until you get the first dig into it.
Yeah, definitely looks like a balm. Okay! This will be a balm for the ends of my hair!
I gave it a sniff, which unfortch: no pictures. It smells lovvvvvely, and reminiscent {<ha, ha} of a product from a different brand that I love, love, love, and I should probs not say? This smells fresh, and clean, and floral, but not so flowery that you reek of meadow. The ingredient list is big on oils, of the coconut and of the olive, but I think it is the orange flower absolute that is making me sigh and go all wistful.
It feels grand. It actually scrapes up easily, and once you warm it between your fingers, any suspicion that this is not going to spread easily is assuaged.
I scraped up too much, but it didn’t really matter as I don’t need perfect hair today {horses.} If you have fine hair as I do, go easy on this. You won’t need much, and it really should live on the ends of the hair only.
The shine, it blinds. It feels soft and silky, and the scent, ah, I love it.
I can hear you saying, This convention is not working, and you’d be correct, because there is nothing aural about this product, and generally, about any product in the world. Yeah, well, whatever. Three out of five isn’t as good as four out of five — oh, okay, probably won’t do this again.
Until I forget that I said that, and think, Hey, I should do that thing with the four out of five senses!
***
Lush Shine So Bright (10g) : €5.75/£4.50/$9.95
New Fixation: Lush Liquid Lipstick Update
As planned, I wore some Lush Liquid Lipstick out to dins l
ast night.
Drinking: okay with a straw. {Made even okay-er because they were mojitos at Green Nineteen.}
Eating: um, no.
In fairness, any lippy is going to get all over everything. With red, though, and with the way that Decisive is so RED, you have to wipe the whole lot off entirely. Which wrecks your look. Which, so: what’s the point of wearing it at all?
And then, you have to hop up and run to the loo to reapply. You can’t reapply at the table because — well, I do top up gloss at the table, or even a light colour, but this red is too bold to re-do in company. It would just be wrong. Also, red is so fiddly, and everybody would be watching you do it, and there’s always the same spot that I mess up, the right side of my upper lip, and oh! the pressure!
Moral of this story: don’t wear red lippy to dinner.
How’s that for decisive?*
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Unless you are getting an entree that you eat in little bits with a fork. I got the burger, which was delicious, but worst choice ever as regards interfacing* with the lippy.
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LOL.
New Fixation: Finding The Perfect Lipstick for Autumn 2012
Subcategory: the perfect red lipstick. I’ve already begun this investigation, here, and sub-sub category is a fixation on the Liquid Lipsticks from Lush’s Emotional Brilliance collection.
This is Power.
Excellent, and slightly freaky photo!
I am generally not a fan of orange-based reds, as they don’t suit me, but this one? I find it a little confusing. It is orange-y, and even has a gold shimmer, but it is not entirely orange? I didn’t fiddle with this in Pshop, so what you ‘see’ is what you ‘get’ {inverted commas = the vagaries of the calibration of everyone’s individual monitors, much less mobiles.} It has a touch of blue in there somewhere, it must.
The Pros v Cons:
Con I’m still not entirely reconciled to the dryness this leaves behind. I’ve tried it both ways — with lip balm on first, as a base, and with it as a top coat, for lack of a better term — and the latter is better. A bit of a blot on a tissue + a touch of balm sets you up nicely for several hours.
Pro Several hours could = forever, if you don’t eat or drink anything. Which is a big ask, okay. Maybe drinking would be okay, if there was a straw involved.
Con The product itself is somewhat slippy, meaning, it gets all over your teeth. Which is gross. Do that supermodel thing, where you purse your lips around your finger and pull it out < OMG, I have tried writing that to be less dirty and naughty and I just can’t figure out a way! Your finger gets all the excess lipstick off your lips.
Pro I love the wee bottles. I just do.
I have a thing tonight, involving food, so I’ll really put this to the test this evening. Will let you know what happens.
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Liquid Lipstick: €17.95
When All Else Fails, Talk About The Hair
…which should have its own Twitter persona at this stage.
This past bank holiday was a blissful, glorious indulgence of Olympics, and olympian Game of Thrones S2 watching {entire season in one day}.
I also cleaned the bath, which doesn’t get any messier than a normal bath, but down to the excessive amount of product, well, it’s a pain in the arse to do. It was worth it, though, because I realised I hadn’t used up all my H’Suan Wen Hua from Lush, which you can go back and read about here. There is also a picture, and the results were exactly the same this time: shockin’ shine, pumped up highlights, but a terrible pong.
It still looks good, these several days later. I’ve also womanned up and have started using the Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream like I mean it, meaning I put it on hair that I’ve dried and ironed. It absolutely does not weigh it down — it makes it look shiny and smooth. Sweartagod. I knew that already? But when you use as much stuff as I do, you tend to forget. Here’s the original post to remind us all.
Along those lines, that five sense thing is a good idea, must remember to to do that again. And a haiku never goes amiss.
Sorry, have to go back to being a top Tweeter in the #equestrian thread.
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H’Suan Wen Hua from Lush: €11.50/£8.50/$19.95
Moroccanoil Hydrating Styling Cream: €28.45/£22.85/$31
Bright & Beautyfull! 