Wishlist

Now that we are fully entering fall autumn, most people make little, sometimes subconscious, changes to their beauty or skincare routines.

Here are some things I want to put on my face to celebrate the changing season:

NARS x Guy Bourdin Blush in Day Dream (available November 1st at Selfridges)

& Other Stories Eye Pencil, £6, and Creamy Pearl Eye Colour, £7, both in Challis Gold, www.stories.com

(budget version of NARS Iskandar Eye Paint or Stila's Comex Gold Magnificent Metals Shadow)

Becca Beach Tint in Fig, £20 from Space NK

Bite Beauty High Pigment Lip Pencil in Tart (pictured) and Corvina, from Selfridges (or Sephora, $24)

There are so many things I need-want from Sephora, mostly from Bite, Tarte and Fresh. My Sephora wishlist grows almost daily...

What new makeup are you lusting after for autumn?

"Eve Lom Cleanser" or "Why I no longer wash my face twice a day"

So at the end of September I used up the last of my Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cleanser, an absolutely wonderful foaming gel cleanser (sorry Caroline Hirons, I know foam is naughty) and decided to take a risk and try out a different one.

After a few grim days of using Avene Gentle Gel Cleanser - not very good at removing eye makeup, even worse at keeping skin clean - I made the trip to Space NK to ask for advice. As Space NK ladies are wont to do, she pointed me straight towards Eve Lom's legendary cleanser. I bit the bullet, handed over £55 (!!!) and headed home.

This new routine takes at least twice as long as a cleanse with the Kiehl's gel, not to mention the fact you have to actually use a muslin cloth. I hate the feeling of the balm on my skin, I hate the feeling that I might not have got it all off with the cloth, I hate using a cloth. I hate that it doesn't get all my mascara off. I hate using it so I use it, like, twice every three days. My skin got a little worse over the first few days of using the cleanser but after a go with Origins Clear Improvement Mask everything is looking fine. Not great, but definitely fine. I've only moisturised twice since I started using Eve Lom, mostly because I feel like my skin would get too greasy after using both the balm and a moisturiser as the balm does leave it looking glowy. So basically, my skincare routine has kind of fallen apart. At least the stuff (apparently) works as an exfoliant.

Bottom line, I will be powering on with the Eve Lom because it cost an arm and a leg, I will definitely post about it again once I finish it to give my final opinion, but I suspect I'm about 20 years too young to be using a balm cleanser. My skin is still relatively teenager-y and this formula probably isn't the best fit.

Finally managed to log back in to the blog + new lippies

So for a month or so I've not been able to log in to my blog (Google issues) but I'm back on and I've bought lots of new makeup!

Here are my new lip products:

Top to bottom: Chanel Rouge Allure in Rivoli, YSL Glossy Stain Rebel Nude in 105 Corail Hold Up, Bite Beauty Lush Fruit Lip Gloss in Garnet, MAC Lipstick in Impassioned.

Skincare changes have also been made (more on that later) and I bought a load of Korean sheet masks!! More on those as I try them out.

NARS Velvet Matte Pencil in Dragon Girl

Because one more swatch of Dragon Girl on the Internet can't hurt, right?

My first ever lip product. I've lost count of the amount of people who've called this the perfect red (I don't agree, but I still think it's great.)

I used to find it kind of drying, but then I realised that it was okay to wear lip balm under lip colours. It wears off the inside of the lip a lot more quickly than the outer edge, to the extent that if I was wearing this, I would have to take it with me wherever I go, but other people report it being very long-wearing, so I guess it varies. I've not worn it in ages so I haven't tried it with MAC Prep + Prime.

Worn with Bobbi Brown Extreme Party Mascara and YSL Touche Eclat. I don't know if Touche Eclat makes a difference at all, I'm still playing around with it and seeing what I can do.

Skincare update + Clear Improvement Mask review

While I was away my skin started acting a little confused, so I'm pretty much over my tinted moisturiser phase. It got spotty and yet drier than usual. I washed my face with Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cleanser twice per day and ended up using Bobbi Brown Eye Cream on my cheeks and occasionally on my face as my normal moisturiser (Clinique Superdefense) started to go funny about three days after I left home. I also used Clarins Wrinkle Control Sun Cream SPF30 if I was spending more than a few hours in the sun. My sister, who is very sensitive when it comes to body sun creams, got on really well with the Clarins cream. Although my body is fine with sun cream, my face tends to get greasy whatever SPF I put on it (I used Lancome Genifique Face SPF30 while on holiday earlier this summer and didn't really get along with that) even though I didn't really sweat a great deal while in Europe.

I wished I'd brought my Good Things Five Minute Facial Mask with me for a bit of grease relief. On my previous holiday I used it a couple of times to even out my skin's texture as it had started to go slightly bumpy.

When I came home I went to my local Origins counter - while it's going to be a challenge to break up with chemical-laden makeup, I am making a vague attempt to go more natural with my skin and hair care - to get me a new moisturiser and something to sort out my problem patches. I came away with (as I said in my previous quick post) the super-lightweight Balanced Diet Moisturiser, £24, and much praised Clear Improvement Charcoal Mask, £22. 

I used the mask last night on my problem areas and saw some improvement immediately after I removed it. I had about 6 spots each on my forehead and chin and a couple on my nose, along with the classic redness. After the mask the redness had almost completely gone, and this morning half the spots have completely dried up. Fantastic stuff. The Origins lady recommended using it twice per week, which I'll probably do until my skin calms down, when I'll start to use it once a week. So far, so good with Balanced Diet as well. Considering trying an Origins cleanser when my beloved Ultra Facial runs out, but I'm not sure I can bear to part ways with Kiehls.

I'm home!

Been galavanting around Europe, but once I got home I treated myself to some new beauty and skincare treats!

I had my first foray into Origins (at last) and left with Balanced Diet lightweight moisturiser and the Clear Improvement charcoal mask. I also bought Chanel eyeshadow in Hasard from the Autumn 2013 Superstition collection, Rouge Coco in Rivoli, nail polish in Frisson and Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat.

I also have Clarins Sun Wrinkle Control Cream SPF30, which I used during my trip, Puffy The Eyebag Slayer under-eye patches from Anatomicals and a bunch of samples including Avene, Mario Badescu and Bumble & bumble (but I find it such effort using up samples and always worry that they are going to mess up my skin.)

I used Balanced Diet last night and loved it, so I suspect that or my Clarins sun cream will be my first review to come up.

Bobbi Brown Tinted Moisturizer SPF15

When I had my Bobbi Brown makeover last week, I decided it was time to buy a Tinted Moisturiser. There were two main reasons I didn't want to buy a BB cream. Frstly a kind of refusal of the BB cream obsession (especially given that by all accounts most non-South Korean BB creams are just tinted moisturisers with a different name.) Secondly, most BB creams have a higher SPF, for example, Bobbi Brown's is SPF35, which I worry might feel greasier and make me glow white in photos. I do have a separate face sun cream just in case though!

I bought the lightest shade they had in stock, Extra Light, which is the right colour for me in the summer. A lighter shade, Alabaster, is also available, and I think that in winter that would suit me better. In addition, there are 5 darker shades.

The coverage is really sheer, as you would expect from a tinted moisturiser it simply evens out any redness and makes the skin appear a little smoother. If you usually use concealer, you will probably still find yourself wanting to use some in conjunction with the tinted moisturiser.

It comes in a regular and an oil-free formation, and even though I chose the regular one, it's not heavy or greasy, and hasn't broken me out at all.

This wasn't my very first tinted moisturiser: I used Benefit's You Rebel Lite (£24.50 for 50ml) which is a little lighter than Extra Light in colour for a year or so when I was 14. It didn't make my spots any worse but it was a little streaky and perhaps a touch too yellow for my skin. I definitely prefer the Bobbi Brown formula. I would like to try NARS Tinted Moisturiser which comes in 11 shades, two of which are lighter than Extra Light, but it is £28 for 30ml, and it's SPF30. I've heard good things about it though.

In short, though, I approve of this formula and I'll definitely keep using a tinted moisturiser. I have a feeling that when the signs of aging start appearing (hopefully not too soon) I'll be happy that I'm already using some kind of base makeup and don't need to make the conspicuous move from bare skin to foundation.

Make Up For Ever HD Microfinish Blush in #5 'Nip Slip'

This blush wins the award for the most random blush packaging ever.

A pump! What? That's not to say I don't like it though. It's fun to use (and it does come with an actual lid, so no spills.)

This is more than enough for two cheeks - only a tiny little pump is needed. This blush will last forEVER.

Despite being described as a 'neutral pink', it looks slightly cool-toned in the bottle, then super neon highlighter watermelon, ever so slightly brighter and darker than it appears above when it's swatched thickly, then it warms right up to a sort of hot peach when blended out. It is pretty thick, I apply it right after moisturiser (or tinted moisturiser as I've been converted!) to make sure that it blends out more than it did in the above swatch.

Depending on your colouring it may warm up even further on the cheeks as it did on mine. I can imagine this colour being flattering on almost every skin tone. It lasts all day and then needs a fairly enthusiastic cleanse to remove all traces of the blush - if you ever need a blush to last more than 12 hours, this is a solid candidate for the job.

I got it from Sephora where it was $26, and I'm on the lookout for places to get this range in the UK. There are a lot of products in the range that are called HD Micro-something, and if they're all as long lasting and well-pigmented as this blush, then I might be on to a winner. 

N.B. If you are wary of chemicals in your makeup, I would avoid these. I hope to be able to try Tarte's Amazonian Clay powder blushes, also from Sephora, which are said to be very well pigmented and long-lasting, but also all-natural.

Bobbi Brown Sheer Lip Color in Hot Raspberry

The other day I went for a make up session at a Bobbi Brown counter which ended in me buying a tinted moisturiser (yeah, I now wear tinted moisturiser) and a, excitingly, hot pink lipstick that is misleadingly described as sheer. I thought that a counter makeover was the best time to start trying lipsticks that weren't red, so on a whim I picked this neutral toned bright fuchsia.

Okay so it's not full cover, but the colour is by no means subtle. It feels totally weightless and also hydrating.

It lasts surprisingly well through a couple of glasses of water, and it doesn't lose its shine then its colour as you might expect, instead staying shiny right until the end (about 5 hours after application). Despite the brightness of the colour, I find it a lot more wearable in the daytime than most of my reds. Thumbs up from me! I'm after NARS Schiap next.

Bobbi Brown Extreme Party Mascara

I noticed a couple of days ago that both my trusty Clinique High Impact Extreme mascara and my Guerlain Cils d'Enfer mascara sample were getting pretty dry. Part of me wanted to just go to Boots and get some under-a-tenner Maybelline Extreme Cat Rocket Volum' Boost Lash (or something like that) but I can't resist the pull of the John Lewis make up counter. Along with the division between drugstore and high-end mascaras, I'd say there's two main price categories within high-end: those from, say, MAC, Laura Mercier, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, which typically cost £14-18, and those that cost £22-25 such as Lancome, Dior, Giorgio Armani. I decided to stick to the first category. More specifically, I wanted to make my first ever Bobbi Brown purchase*.

I'm starting to develop an opinion on mascara brushes and effects. I like bristle brushes as opposed to plastic ones, I like the brush head to be as large and thick as possible, I prefer a non-waterproof formula. I like mascaras that give fluttery lashes, but with potential for layering and buildability. Having done no previous research into Bobbi Brown mascaras, I picked the one with the largest bristle brush: Extreme Party Mascara, £18.

When I got home, I looked it up on MakeupAlley, where it has a solid pretty rubbish 2.9 out of 5. Lots of blog reviews complain that it's not Extreme Party enough, instead rather fluttery. Perfect!

This photo is two layers of careful application and wiggling. The brush is pretty massive and also it tapers off towards the end, meaning that you can get in to the little lashes on the inner corner, but it also has potential to cause clumps if you rush. But I never rush mascara, so I don't count this as a negative. The formula is fast-drying and curls my lashes very well.

I definitely prefer the brush to Clinique's Extreme High Impact, which is plastic. The original High Impact mascara (still available) has a bristle brush, but it's not as wide as Extreme Party's. This formula can be removed using cleanser, which is a huge bonus for me as I can't bear oil-based removers. This puts it ahead of Guerlain's amazing yet indelible Cils d'Enfer in my personal rankings. So I think I might be looking at my new favourite.

Of course, mascara preferences vary wildly from person to person, but if your mascara preferences sound similar to mine, I definitely recommend checking this out.

*I know, what?! Though I've never purchased one, I have used Bobbi Brown products before - I took my mother's Pot Rouge in Pale Pink off her hands, but I hated it. It was too cool and utterly un-blendable. Until very recently I've felt a little too young for BB. I don't know what caused my change of heart but, as I said when I bought the mascara, I think it's going to act as a gateway drug. Lots more Bobbi Brown will be finding its way into my makeup bag soon.