Eyeliner -Korres - smooth cedar wood pencil
lilypink 9/13/2007 8:00:00 AM
EDIT 2011: Arghh! This stupid company have changed the formula of their No6 Grey..it's now metallic and paler and bluer and much less perfect and irritates the eyes! Why have companies got to do this????? If anyone reads this and knows of another brand which does an equivalent grey to the old browney/ grey matte version which is equally as stay-putable and non irritant then do back channel me! I'm heading for not wearing any eye stuff what with Clinique having discontinued their old style Quickeyes pencil/powder combo and everything else in their supposedly ophthalmicly tested range makes my eyes puff up (as does practically every other brand on the planet!!) Annoyed big time!!! :(((((((((( I have eyes which behave very badly, and even long-wear or waterproof eyeliners can end up half way down my cheeks within 1/2 hour! These Korres pencils are brilliant however and really stay in place whilst not irritating and maintain a good colour for a long while. I love the Petrol blue as it makes my eyes brighten and the whole face looks less tired. I'm contemplating the darker grey, but they are difficult to get hold of in the UK atm (though I understand they are intending to take the cosmetics range to more outlets throughout the country in the new year). These are good products, well worth trying out! EDIT: Just had the No 6 Grey pencil and it's lovely too. Looks a little bit brown in the stick, but is not brown on the eyes. Beautiful with blue eyes without being too trashy looking as black can be if you have skin as pale as mine :( EDIT No 2: Also just received the Natural Light Lip Liner: Excellent. Very natural, lovely to edge lips and just use a balm as it gives a 'demarcation' without the 'bunny girl' dark line. I have teamed it with my L'Occitane Pure Shea Butter which I use on my very dry and cracked lips and works great and makes the lips look much more generous and 'pouty' :)
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Gels/Soaps -Philosophy - Vanilla Birthday Cake 3-in-1
lilypink 9/3/2007 1:48:00 PM
I know this may sound completely barking, but I actually decided to try this as a shampoo! My HG shampoo (Fructis for greasy roots and damaged ends) was discontinued about 3 yrs ago, and sensibly I stockpiled very heavily. I am now down to my last 1/2 bottle and over the intervening years have tried getting on for 50 shampoos to try to find one which measures up to the Fructis. This is a much harder problem than I envisaged and I still have not found anything which comes even close. Anyway, being swayed by the hype on QVC that these 3 in 1 products had won awards simply for their quality as a shampoo I bought this one. The smell is nothing special (L'Occitane Vanilla is much nicer) and as a bath foam it is very watery and sparse, but who on earth actually rated this as a shampoo for those damn awards? Was it someone who had spent the previous year on a deserted island with no washing facilities and only mother nature to take care of their locks? This really is rubbish as a shampoo; leaves an itchy, greasy, dirty feeling scalp and dull, strawlike mid lengths and ends. Well I've had enough with Philosophy now. I've tried a number of their products and I could have found better quality in Poundstretcher - it's really nothing to write home about. Rant now over, but I feel such a fool to part with my money over the hype. 'Never believe hype' - that's my Philosophy!!!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Treatments (Eye) -Clinique - Advanced Stop Signs Eye SPF 15
lilypink 8/29/2007 11:04:00 AM
Having tried to use an AHA eye treatment product at night, I needed to find a day cream which had a SPF higher than the '10' of my usual Liz Earle Daily Eye Repair. First I tried the Clarins 30spf which even if used only on the orbital bone made my eyes water and my make-up migrate. Then I tried the Lavera Face Cream with SPF which is suitable for the eye area.. but again same problems. Then I tried this Clinique one. Well it doesn't make my eyes water, so that's an improvement, but my make-up does migrate and my wrinkles look alot worse! I will use it up on my eyes on days where I'm mooching around the house and no-one will see me, as well as on my nose and neck!!! I then discovered that the AHA cream was doing me no favours anyway and have now fully bought in to the Shiseido Future Solution Cream for Lips and Eyes to use at night - very good, and as it isn't stripping layers of epidermis away I can go back to my wonderful Liz Earle Daily Eye Repair, which leaves a lovely moisturised sheen around the eye are without causing irritation or my make-up to end up half way down my face!! Wasted alot of money discovering this though!!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Blush -Laura Mercier - Creme Cheek Color - CANYON
lilypink 8/7/2007 9:23:00 AM
A nice texture and lovely packaging, but really too orange on my ppp celtic skin. I'll be able to use it, but with care, and adding in a bit of pink over the top with a powder blusher. It's a real peach to me..practically no pink in it once it's on the skin, though does look both pinker and darker in the pan. I prefer Clinique Blushwear in Rosy Blush tbh, though I have a horrible feeling they may have discontinued it just recently here in the UK ;-( EDIT: Sept 07: Just an update on this as I am finding, despite it's limitations in terms of colour, I am reaching for it more and more. I know why: the texture is brilliant, it's a pleasure to use. Having read the reviews for the Praline version I will certainly purchase that - probably a much better bet for my pale skin. (I had purchased the Canyon on Stawberrynet where I had to rely on the 'screen colour' as a guide - not the best idea). Anyway, the quality of this far exceeds the Bobbi Brown Rouge Pots, much kinder to the skin, glides on like silk!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Treatments (Eye) -Shiseido - Future Solution Eye and Lip
lilypink 7/19/2007 8:08:00 AM
I actually only have had a sample of this product so far, but the sample seemed to go on and on forever, and using it on just one eye I was able to discern whether there was any benefit or not. It seems that there is! It's better than the Guerlain Issima Success Eye Tech which I had been using and which has a very nice texture, but the Shiseido seems to actually do more in terms of plumping up the skin and reducing the appearance of wrinkles. I will probably be buying the full size of this product, but I'm waiting to see what happens when I pit it agianst the samples I have of the very, very expensive Zelens Eye Cream, which also appears to be pretty beneficial. I'm hugely sceptical about creams now; so many deliver nothing at all, it's just such a pity that the two which seem to be doing the most for me are also not exactly cheap. - OH well that's life!! I'm very surprised that the review marks for this product are as low as they are. Perhaps you need to be in the 44yr plus category to really appreciate the difference it makes, especially when compared to other, much cheaper products (and I've tried most of them ;-) ). EDIT..Sept 07. Well I've upped my 4 lippies to 5, and have bought the full size version and almost overnight I have seen such an improvement compared with other bits and pieces I have been trialling and using up. I won't say it's my HG eye cream - I always hope that this can be surpassed.. but it's good; very good.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lotions/ Creams -Korres - Body Butter - Guava
lilypink 6/22/2007 8:05:00 AM
I have bought and re-bought this Body Butter over and over again! Beautiful texture, beautiful perfume, and actually does wonders on knees, heels, elbows - all those tricky places. Buy it - you'll be hooked.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Treatments -Clarins - Beauty Flash Balm
lilypink 5/25/2007 8:02:00 AM
I don't really know what this is for..well I know what they say it's for but it really does absolutely nothing for my 46 yrs old combi skin. I don't like throwing things away and so am using it up on my neck, knees - weird places like that ;-) but thb I have yet to find a Clarins product that I actually get on with.
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Treatments -Boots - no7 Protect and Perfect beauty serum
lilypink 5/23/2007 3:38:00 PM
Well, I've had this on the go now for just over a week, and boy am I impressed!!!!! I usually hate serums as having combi skin they usually feel sticky and tacky and I can't tolerate wearing them for any length of time. This is absorbed very well indeed, leaves a very pleasant texture on the skin, and in even this short time is making a difference to my skin: it's clearer, less pigmented, it seems softer and slightly plumper and I do think my lines (not that I have that many ;-) ) are softening a bit. It's hugely better than the very expensive Prevage - which I had as a freebie (full size ) as a promotion on getting a subsription from Vogue magazine here in the UK. That stuff at 145 quid really stings and iritates and doesn't seem to do anything at all. Why pay almost £150 for hype when you can have something that works and which is nice to use for only £17? Now if only they can match this with an antiwrinkle eye cream at such a competitive price, I'll be a happy bunny indeed!!! EDIT: April 08: Well the first flush of being impressed with this has worn off, as the benefits seem mainly to be in that first couple of months. * IF* this is still helping my collagen to build etc then I'm no longer aware of further improvement. I have a huge 'giant-sized' version of this and am now using it by day instead of night, having changed my regime slightly. Actually it works pretty well as a primer - far, far better than any primer I have tried before. I feel it's quite nice to have a primer which may be helping my skin in some way, but when I finish this and my Prevage I think I may invest in the IS Clinical Youth Complex and see if that is any better over time (having had a few samples to try recently, I feel it may be more 'active'). Anyway I have removed one lippie to account for this.
8 out of 8 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Primer/ Corrector -Smashbox - Photo Finish Primer
lilypink 5/6/2007 5:54:00 AM
YUK: greasy, oily, just horrible!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Treatments (Eye) -Shiseido - Benefiance Concentrated Anti-wrinkle Eye Cream
lilypink 5/5/2007 12:33:00 PM
Having read all the good comments for this product I thought I'd give this a go and managed to get a sample from my local Shiseido concession. I'm big into samples now: it strikes me that if a company really thinks a product is good then they should stand behind that and provide a sample, especially where the outlay otherwise is quite big. I also have very sensitive eyes which can become very puffy and gloopy when not appropriately treated. I'm now very glad I went down the sample route as I would have hated to have parted with money for this! It IS very greasy and could not possibly be worn, as far as I can see, during the day; it would shine like a beacon and no makeup would have a hope of adhereing to it. Even applied to clean skin early in the evening it was still shining away without having sunk in many hours later. Of course I might put up with that if it had some marvellous result, but No! After three days I gave up this little experiment as my skin was 'losing ground' very noticeably. My crepieness and fine wrinkles were much more apparent; something which was magnified even more when I applied makeup during the day. I'm now back to my Guerlain Issima Success Eye Tech. I don't really believe much hype any more, and am not sure ANY eye cream can live up to what it claims, but the Guerlain one really does seem to be the best I have tried thus far..but will keep you posted ;-) The MU assistant at Shiseido also gave me the lip and eye Focus product at the same time, so when I've tried that one out..I'll let you all know!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Blush -NARS - Orgasm Blush
lilypink 5/4/2007 12:18:00 PM
I had this blush on my wish list for a while but decided to buy it when it seemed clear I wouldn't be able to get it via a swap. It's nice on my fair skin, and not as peach as I think others have intimated, but I do think it is a little too obvious for daytime on me. I've only had it a few days and may fall more in love with it over time, but the pale blush in my Honey Chic Palette trio from Scott Barnes is much nicer I think (more natural). I'm going to continue playing around with this - and building it up for evening, but at present I'm not as blown away by it as I was hoping from the reviews. One good thing is that the colour is very saturated and so a little goes a long way and will last for years I suspect. Regarding the packaging; I actually rather like it. I prefer ergonomically designed simple packaging - I don't like Guerlains pastiche of Venetian glass (very chavvy) for instance, despite liking their products - and I think the simple, rubbery, modern black pouch is quite dinky. EDIT. Well, a few weeks on and I'm still not that impressed. I don't get the 'peach' comments at all, if anything it's rather red on my very pale celtic skin. I do need to use a very light hand to get an acceptable glow, without looking as though I'm very embarrassed about something. I do use it, but only because it's there and I hate wasting things. I think I might have been better off with a Laura Mercier one. I don't think the texture is up to that much either - it doesn't reflect the price of it. Nothing like as good as my Scott Barnes. I've reduced my overall rating to 3 lippies instead of four as a result. EDIT: a few months on and I'm really dissapointed with this. Colour much too red for me (not remotely flattering), the gold in it is too brash, and the quality isn't anything beter than a cheapy £5 blush. Definitely won't be buying a NARS blush again! Dropped this down to 2 lippies - wait and it may go down even further! Definitely another example of being better off not listening to marketing hype!!
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Treatments -Kerastase - Ciment Thermique
lilypink 5/4/2007 9:23:00 AM
Having been very rude about most of Kerastase products I have to change my tune completely when it comes to this one. It's designed to be used with heated appliances - hair dryers, straighteners etc and uses the heat itself to force the nourishing properties of the balm into the hair shaft. All I can say is this really does improve the quality of damaged hair which is (in my case) straightened regulary with GHD's. It also holds that finish better than other similar balms I have tried and consequently reduces the amount of stress on the hair as next-day tonging can be kept to a minimum. There is one problem with it; the price. A tube here inthe UK is about £15 and if you use the 'walnut sized' amount suggested in the pack details you do get through it pretty quick, but it's probably a price worth paying if it does protect as well as it seems to. This is one of the few (perhaps only) Kerastase products which I will repurchase.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Lotions/ Creams -Nuxe - Huile Prodigieuse (Multipurpose dry oil)
lilypink 5/3/2007 12:21:00 PM
I'm not absolutely bowled over by this product but it is very pretty over tanned skin in summer. It provides a very light level of moisturisation, but I suspect many buy it more for the 'gleam' than as a heavy duty emmolient. The one thing I really love about it is the smell! I know, I know, others have hated the smell (but then I hate practically every packaged perfume on the planet - apart from Anais Anais - so I suspect my nose works rather differently from most people), but this smell reminds me of years ago and sunbathing in my teens. Was it Bergasol or Piz Buin that used to smell like this stuff?...one of the two, anyway it transports me staight back to being 16 - bliss!
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Shampoo -John Frieda - Brilliant Brunette Shine Release Volumizing Shampoo
lilypink 5/1/2007 4:29:00 AM
This volumising product is much better than the equivalent 'moisturising' shine release as it gives much more bounce and is better if you have an oilier scalp. Not 100% perfect as a shampoo as it can be a little tricky to style afterward, but hair feels clean and soft, and I do just love that slightly coconut smell that seems to come with all JF products. A good staple.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Treatments -John Frieda - Luminous Color Glaze
lilypink 4/30/2007 1:50:00 PM
I'm a very big fan of John Frieda (always wondered why Lulu decided to divorce him - what could be better than your own personal world class hairdresser???) and really love most of his products so was very surprised and disappointed that this didn't work for me at all. I followed the instructions implicitly but my oily roots and damaged ends really didn't like it at all - felt like I'd washed my hair in grease - and I had to wash my hair straight away afterward. Not a success I'm afraid.
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