Oh, yeah. Continue reading
SWEET SIXTEEN
Sweet Sixteen: Almost There!
Well, here we are, almost on the last installment* in the first long-form editorial feature on brightandbeautyfull.com. I just had a bad moment in which I thought that I had miscounted and actually had three more to do, rather only one. It gave me pause, in that it A} reinforced my belief that I suffer from dyscalculia (must self-diagnose myself, there has to be a test I can take online) and B} made me wonder how the previous fifteen added up, in terms of categories covered. Like, if I had to survive on a desert island with only these products, could I?!?!?
Well, I’d certainly smell good, and have incredibly soft skin. No less than six of the products had to do with exfoliating, moisturising, oiling and scenting the bod. I think this is a good thing, because of predators, you know, on the desert island. They’d be put off by all that perfume, right? So thanks to Bliss Vanilla + Bergamot, Jo Malone Body Créme, Elemis Frangipani Monoi Moisturing Oil, the L’Occitane Almond line, the Lush Karma line, and Nuxe’s Huile Prodigieuse, I am safe from… I don’t know, monkeys?
Skincare-wise, I’ve got Clinique’s Clarifying Toner and REN’s Cleansing Milk, Dermalogica’s Soothing Booster to zap away those pesky zits, Yes to Carrots Exfoliating Mud Mask, and Lancôme’s Visionnaire to keep me youthful while I wait for the rescue ship. Perhaps if I had realised I was going to be shipwrecked, I would have packed some SPF.
As far as make up goes, I’ve got Benefit’s Erase Paste, Mac’s Beauty Powder, and Too Faced Caribbean in a Compact which is surely redundant. Also surplus to requirements, at least in the middle of the ocean, is Voya’s Lazy Days seaweed bath.
Hmmm: no lip balm, and I am as addicted to that as I am to shampoo & conditioner — and no shampoo & conditioner?!? No regular moisturiser or serum, nothing for my brows. Since I already know what my last item is, I see that I may have to do something else along the lines of… My Desert Island Sponge Bag???
Too lazy to link — already gearing up for the laid-back island lifestyle — but if you click on the Sweet Sixteen tag or category link below, it’ll take you where you want to go.
*Appearing tomorrow…
Sweet Sixteen: REN Hydra-Calm Cleansing Milk
This is number fifteen in the series, woo hoo! And I’m waffling about what the finale is going to be…
I am not a big fan of cleanser. Based on the post I am working on re: day creams v night creams, in which I am thinking about not bothering with the cream of the night, it is hard to imagine what my beauty regime actually entails, if I am a big cleanser h8r.
I dunno: I think I just hate the mess it makes when you use the stuff — or maybe I just make a big mess? Splatters of water all over the place, from scooping water on my face to clean off the cleanser, and I haaaaate the feeling of water running down my neck and arms. I think I must suffer from some sort of rare condition, because written out, that is just freaky.
But then I got some REN Hydra-Calm Cleansing Milk to review, and I think I may have changed my mind.
This is so thick and rich, it feels like you are icing your face like a cake. It’s thicker than milk, actually, and think ‘Cleansing Custard’ might be a better name. The very first time I applied this, I sighed aloud — it’s that nice. It’s … well, it’s sensuous, which is weird in a cleanser. And as sexy as it is, it gets the job done, removing even the most stubborn of make up, even my waterproof inner eye liner, which is a tough customer.
Thanks to its chemical-free state, my skin didn’t feel squinchy after I’d rinsed it off. I don’t mind a good feeling of squinch — makes me feel like my pores have been seen to — but I do know that it’s not the best state for my skin to be in. I get the clean, shiny result of such squinch-making cleansers, without the stress to my complexion.
I still haaaaate the feeling of water running down my neck and arms, though, and tend to use this in the shower in the a.m., even though I feel like this kind of product does its best for me in the p.m. Well, you never know, I may get over my squeamishness. Either way, this is a keeper.
€25/£18/$32
Sweet Sixteen: Too Faced Carribean in a Compact Snow Bunny Bronzing Powder
People often ask me, ‘Sue, do you ever buy beauty products anymore, and if you do, what would they be? ’The first one that always springs to mind is this cutie-pie compact from Too Faced: Carribean in a Compact Snow Bunny Subtly Sun-Kissed Bronzing Powder.
That looks very ‘yum’ to me, like Neapolitan ice cream, which, as I suspected, is almost entirely an American construction. Here, you’ve go the bonus fourth flavour, which is probs the one far right, to swirl all over your face in order for it to look sun-kissed and glowy.
I was a bronzer loser when I started down the slippery slope of self-tanning, and this one was my salvation. Even I couldn’t mess this up. A perfect combination of lowlight and highlight, of gold + white + pink + fawn, this flows over the face like the sun itself, and during the Tanning Times, I never walk out of the door without it.
Imagine my distress when I began to run out of my trial version. It didn’t seem to be available anywhere in Dublin, and the brand no longer seemed to be represented by anyone in the PR world. So, on a trip to NYC, I lunged into a Sephora and grabbed up two. This number now seems optimistic: I’ve gone through the first one, and occasionally look at the other one in my drawer, with relief and trepidation.
At the time of this writing, I’ve rung all round town, to see whether a shop in town is carrying the brand, to no avail. Ah, well. There’s always online shopping… although as outlined here, it’s a rather ornate undertaking. It can be done, if you care enough, and I must admit, I do.
€ price is whatever the conversion is, plus shipping/£22/$29
Sweet Sixteen: L’Occitane Almond Line
WHAT IS THIS ABOUT, AGAIN? There’s a full explanation here; in short, I wanted to do a Personal Top Ten Beauty Products of All Time, but found the list sneaking up to Top Twenty; then it fell short at Eighteen, which is like, what is Eighteen, so I decided that Sweet Sixteen was the way to go.
It’s good to be queen.
Ahem. Here is number — hang on — lucky number Thirteen, ladies and ladies. Continue reading
Sweet Sixteen: MAC Beauty Powder
Okay, basically, this is a powder made out of beauty. Continue reading
Sweet Sixteen: Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Multi-Use Body Oil
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
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
Sweet Sixteen: Yes To Carrots Exfoliating and Soothing Mud Mask
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
Sweet Sixteen: Jo Malone Body Créme
Everything about Jo Malone feels rich: the beautiful cream-and-black branding, the boxes, the ribbons, and most particularly, the heavy glass tub that contains the luxurious body créme.
There is absolutely nothing like the Jo Malone Body Créme. I don’t like all the scents — and frankly, I wouldn’t blame you feeling completely suspicious of me if I did — but the ones that I do, I adore. Unconditionally. Without reservation.
Lime Basil & Mandarin. Pomegranate Noir. Amber & Lavender! Oh, I forgot about that last one. I went to swap the places of LM&B and PN, but I can’t. I don’t think I can. Can I? No, not possible. Even though I layer PN with pleasure, and everyone knows what it is, and I don’t mind everyone recognizing it, because it is so delightfully sensuous, and something of a signature scent for me … I still can’t put it first, because it wasn’t my first.
Lime Basil & Mandarin. I had no idea that this Sweet Sixteen was going to be so nostalgic, but I have just gone off into a mental video memory of the first time I got a whiff of the stuff. I had been hanging with some pals, enjoying the bubbling hot tub at the SPORTSCO Leisure Centre in Ringsend {why do I remember it as the ESB gym?} and then after repairing to the changing room, one of the women passed around the body crème. Its heavy glass jar immediately communicated its splendour, and an obsession was born.
I had to have it. I had to have it for myself. I didn’t care that I was suddenly smelling that scent everywhere I turned; rather, it became the clarion call of a little club of ladies who knew what was what when it came to self care, and about splurging a mad amount of money of a thing that didn’t last for an appreciable amount of time.
Ah, now! That last bit is not so true. Because it so well-crafted, you need less than you think to enfold yourself in the fragrant goodness that is a Jo Malone body crème. So all of us who were amongst the vanguard were less annoyed at smelling ourselves coming and going {oh, dear, that sounds nasty} and more keen to appreciate the savvy of our fellow Malonistas.
It’s like being a member of a club whose only agenda is to smell gorgeous. I consider myself to be a lifetime member, with honours.
€63/£48/$75
Bright & Beautyfull! 