RapidLash Eyelash Serum

This serum has been out for about 18 months now and was one of the first of its kind on the market. Since then a few other brands have brought out a similar version, some of them at a lower price point.  However this one seems to be the best and is of my “Hero Products”…

I naturally have very short eyelashes, so for years my short inadequate eyelashes have given me nothing but envy for girls with a Bambi like flutter.

Now falsies are fab but for every day I find them a bit too much effort, and if you’ve seen my earlier posts you’ll know I’m not a fan of the fibre lash mascaras.

Enter…..RapidLash Serum!!  I started using this probably about three months ago, not actually believing it was going to work because I had previously used the cheaper MAC equivalent and that did nothing for me.

 As directed I applied the product to my upper and lower lashes every night before bed.  Now when I started my lashes were also quite sparse from applying individual lashes so this product had a lot of work to do.

For a couple of weeks, nothing really happened and then after about 4-5 weeks I started noticing my lashes looking denser, darker and thicker.  From then on every week I saw an improvement, they grew longer and thicker.

About halfway through I started using the serum on my eyebrows. I was aiming to get a better growth of hair at the top of my outer brows to lift them and give them a better more defined shape. Again at first nothing but slowly now I’m seeing my brows grow where I am applying the serum.

Now a tube of Rapid Lash isn’t cheap, it’s about £40 from Boots  and I’ve just about gotten through one tube over three months. I’m pleased that it’s lasted so long and I’m sure that I would have spent almost this amount on individual false lashes. So for me the price is worth the pay off.

The proof of course is the lashes themselves so I’ve posted a picture of my lashes below. Now I wish I’d taken a before picture,  but  I never thought I’d be blogging about this as I never thought I would work. So you’ll just have to trust me that before my lashes were pretty inferior!

One last thing…I’m almost sure that as lashes naturally shed every 4-6 weeks this product will need to be continuously used to keep up my longer, thicker lashes. Will I be stocking up….definitely. 

Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector, Daily All-In-One B.B. Blemish Balm Cream

Finally the skincare sensation that is taking Asia by storm has finally reached the U.K!

B.B. or “Blemish Balm” creams are a next generation product with a hybrid formula, combining skincare with mineral pigments

5  Benefits!

B.B. Creams boast an all in one skincare solution. The product claims to moisturise, even skin tone with a luminous glow, blur imperfections and redness, smooth fine lines and contains SPF15.

Does it Work?

Ok, so hopefully none of us are naive to think we can obtain perfection from a bottle or tube…. especially for £9.99. Great skin requires more than just products…diet, sleep and hydration play a huge role.

However although the product doesn’t actually work miracles it does give pretty good results. Skin and fine lines seem smoother, skin tone is even and small blemishes are covered.

The nicest thing about this product is that it leaves the skin with a really nice glow which is key to achieving youthful looking skin. Also the product doesn’t sit on the skin and it’s pretty much undetectable that you are wearing any coverage. This is what sets it apart from a standard tinted moisturiser.

Unfortunately there are some cons to the product, it doesn’t last a full day maybe 4-5 hours at best. I use a primer under all my day make-up and this will help with the longevity of the coverage however it does somewhat defeat the objective of an all in one product.

The coverage is good, similar to a tinted moisturiser however for anyone who requires a medium coverage; this product will just not cut it alone. I have been using it in conjunction with foundation in the areas where I require more concealing.

The biggest downfall for some people will be the shades available. Light is actually what I would describe as a medium shade, and the Medium is quite dark. For anyone with fair skin the Light shade is going to leave the skin looking a bit orange

To Buy or Not to Buy?

Despite the downfalls I would still recommend buying this product if you have a medium to dark skin complexion (check the testers first!).

Even though I have to use this with a slight bit of foundation it does leave my skin looking nicer and with more of a glow than with just a foundation alone.

If you are lucky enough to only need to use a tinted moisturiser, this product is a great upgrade for you.

Finally I think the product would be great for any MEN who are brave enough to venture into the world of tinted skincare! Although it comes in girly packaging (once you hide it safely in the bathroom cupboard no one will know) it is ideal for men who want quick easy and quality daily skin care and also to look that little bit better. It’s virtually undetectable…so why not??

Coveted Coverage

Every now and then a make-up brand will release a product which is so sought after that any artist who owns one will adore it, and those who don’t will look on enviously!

One of the MOST sought after products is the Bobbi Brown University Face Palette. This product was inspired by Bobbi Brown’s own make-up kit and  is “the ultimate face palette for pros and aspiring artists alike.”

Used by pretty much every top artist in the industry the pallet is a compact and easy way to own, transport and use every shade of a corrector, concealer and foundation you could ever need. If that wasn’t enough the quality of the products inside are considered to be some of the best on the market.

The last time the pallet was available was 2009 as a limited edition. These were quickly snapped up and since there has been speculation about when (if ever) another one would be available. Rumours started earlier this year 

that a new palette was on the cards and there was even talk of a waiting list

Finally this month the wait is over, without any hype or advertising the new limited edition palette has appeared 

on the website and is selling fast as word spreads.

The new palette is even bettter than the old version. It features 11 rather than 9 shades of her skin flattering Corrector, 14 instead of 12 shades of Creamy Concealer, and 20 Foundation Stick shades which is 3 more than the previous palette. Plus an empty well to mix and make custom shades.

I’m waiting excitedly for mine to arrive and to pulling it proudly out of my kit many times….

Basic Tips – Concealer

As promised I’m going to continue my basic tips with concealer. This is the next step in creating flawless yet natural and glowing skin.

The first and most important thing to remember is that the concealer must be the same shade as your foundation; if it is a tiny bit lighter or darker it will draw even more attention to the area! A good tip is to mix your chosen concealer with some foundation on the back of your hand to get a closer match.

The next thing to consider when choosing a concealer is what you are trying to conceal. This sounds obvious but is actually the biggest stumbling block.

Most people will use concealer for two things, to cover blemishes and to cover dark circles/shadows. The key thing to remember is that you are trying to camouflage these issues and therefore the concealer needs to counteract the problem. So for each you will need a different type of product and I will run through these below.

1) Dark Eye Circles /Shadows

For this problem you need to establish what is the base colour of your shadows/circles. This will either be a blue or a green tone. An easy way to work this out is to look at the veins on inside of your wrist and see if they are towards a blue or green shade.

For a blue tone you will need to conceal this with a pink undertone to your concealer, for a green tone you will require a yellow undertone to your concealer.  This is regardless of whether you wear a pink or yellow foundation; your concealer will not necessarily have the same undertone.

The next thing to thing about is texture. The under eye area tends to be a place which has some crease and expression lines regardless of age, it is also the thinnest area of skin on the face. Therefore using a thick heavy product here will look very cakey and will be prone to creasing as the product sinks into the lines. This will make the product look obvious and unnatural.

Therefore we need to use a very light product which will suit this area of the face. Many brands produce a solution in the form of the concealer pen.  A lot of these also contain light reflecting particles which also add brightness to the under eye area.

A couple of my favourites are:

Clinique – Airbrush Concealer. This has to be one of the best at the more expensive end of the scale. Unlike many of the brands this product manages to give really good coverage whilst remaining light in texture. A lot of similarly priced alternatives give much less coverage.

Lacura Beauty – Concealer Pen. This product is right at the cheaper end of the scale and comes from an usual source..ALDI. This brand has received a lot of press acclamation due to its affordability but also the quality of the products. The concealer pen costs just £3.49 and does a great job, much better than a lot of more expensive versions. It’s not as good as the Clinique pen, but at 5 times cheaper it’s the next best thing.

To apply these products put a couple of few dots along the area requiring concealing, then gently pat the product into the skin and blend the edges gently. You can use either a brush or your fingers to do this; do not use heavy strokes on the product as this will remove it.

Make sure to only apply on the areas that are dark, not over the full under eye area as this will not provide the desired effect and the whole area will look too light and unnatural.

2)Blemishes

To camouflage blemishes which will be pink or red in colour we need to use a concealer which has a yellow undertone to counteract the colour of the blemish. A common mistake when covering spots is to use a concealer which is too pink, this will draw attention to the area rather than conceal it.

The consistency will need to be thicker than the under eye concealer but still without looking cakey. A full coverage foundation is great for this. Oily skin and shiny blemishes will need to be covered with a concealer which is drier in consistency, stick foundations are great for this.

A couple of my favourite products are below.

Vichy Dermablend - Corrective Foundation Cream & Stick. Vichy recently teamed up with Dermablend who are famous for strong camouflage make-up for stage and severe skin marking with products which provide extremely effective coverage. The cream is a full coverage foundation which is fantastic at covering slight to heavy blemishing. The stick provides even stronger coverage for those who require it but is slightly more obvious than the cream.

       

                                                

L’Oreal - Infallible Concealer. This product provides good affordable coverage; it has a drier consistency for oily skin without looking cakey. It also has great staying power!

To apply these products use the same patting technique as above making sure the concealer is blended into the rest of the foundation at the edges. For very small blemishes you can use a small brush to target the area which will leave as much healthy skin free as possible and look more flawless.

If you are struggling to cover the area, wait for the existing product to dry slightly and repeat the same patting technique

Once the product is applied it is a good idea to set the product with a powder (ideally translucent) this will enable the coverage to last longer. This can be patted on using a brush or a cotton pad. Ensure any excess is blended off.

Basic Tips – Foundation

 Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to blog some tips on mastering the basics of make-up application to achieve a flawless and flattering look. Starting with foundation…

For me this combined with concealer is the most important step, and if done right can make the difference between a youthful radiant complexion and an obvious mask like finish.

1. Choosing your foundation  

The first step (and the hardest) is to choose the right texture and colour. I prefer a very light and “free” foundation for both young and mature skin as I really do I believe less is more! You should be using a foundation to even out your skin tone and balance out any changes in skin pigmentation, the foundation will also cover very slight blemishes….and that is it, the rest of the work is done by the concealer.                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                                       By using this method you avoid covering your face with too much product and hiding the natural luminosity of the skin.  As this naturally diminishes with age, by applying too much foundation we are in effect aging the appearance of our skin.

The texture you are looking for is something not much heavier than a tinted moisturiser and something reasonably thin. When applied you should not really be able to see the foundation on the skin’s surface. I’m also not a fan of matt finish foundation as this again dulls the skin (we can deal with oily/shiny skin using loose powder later).

In terms of which colour to choose (the tricky bit) first of all you need to establish whether you have a yellow or pink undertone to your skin. Most people are yellow, but a few fairer complexions have a pinkish undertone.

All brands will produce colours in both pink and yellow tones; this is generally found by the name or number of the foundation. For example MAC uses N or NW as a prefix for pink (warm) undertones and C or NC for yellow (cool) undertones.

Once you have established this you need to get the right shade, first of all I strongly advise you try before you buy. Ask a sales assistant for some samples or take some travel pots with you and take a small amount from the tester. This will allow you to try the shade in daylight and out of the artificial shop light.

Test the foundation in 3 places, the jawline (does the colour stand out too much on the skin), the forehead (as our faces can be slightly different in colour from top to bottom) and on the chest just below the neck (will our foundation match our face to the rest of our body).

As skin colour will tend to change from season to season and if you apply fake tan, eventually try and have two colours of foundation on the go at once. One for you at your darkest, and the other at your lightest. Using both of these you can mix the colours on the back of your hand to achieve the closest match to the skin. This sounds hard but after a few attempts you’ll be surprised how easy it is to gage.

Both the tone and the shade are equally important, get one wrong and you won’t achieve the natural finish.

Some of my favourite foundations are:

MAC – Face and Body. Comes in a wide range of shades and is great value for money. This is the most commonly used foundation for catwalk and editorial work. It is also very easy to mix shades together.

Chanel - Aqua Vitalumiere. Has a light reflecting property which further hides imperfections and give radiance to the skin, really light in application and great for oily skin as oil free. Unfortunately it is quite expensive and comes in limited shades.

Bourjois – Healthy Mix. A baby sibling to Chanel the Bourjois range is much cheaper. At first it seems thick out of the bottle, however applies very thinly over the skin. However compared to MAC has limited shades available.

2.  Application

**Before application ensure your moisturiser has soaked into the skin to avoid the foundation slipping around on top of the skin and wearing off quickly.**

There are no rules to applying foundation and there are a few choices of several brushes, fingers or sponge. 

Firstly I would very rarely use a sponge, I find it absorbs and wastes too much product and tends to leave a streaky effect on the skin.

I prefer to use a mixture of brushes and fingers, a synthetic foundation brush as shown below is ideal.

Start by putting some of the product on the back of your hand (the one you won’t be using the brush with), this is both easy to apply the product from and also warms the foundation to the same temperature as your skin, making it blend nicely when applied.

Start from the centre of the face and blend outwards, use downward strokes as this minimises the appearance of pores and fine hairs. Make sure that you have very little product towards the edge of the face as here is where thick product will leave tell-tale lines. Blend a little product into the neck if required.

Finally use your fingers to pat and blend the applied foundation into your skin, particularly around the centre of the face. This will work the foundation into the skin as often the brush will leave some product sitting on top of the skin.

Next step concealer….

Lash Lust

Hi! Sorry I haven’t blogged for a few days. However whilst I have been off on holiday I’ve still been working my way through some new and exciting products.

One of which I have been desperate to get my hands on for ages, and I wasn’t the only one. Ever heard of a mascara waiting list?? That’s exactly what happened when Model Co announced they were launching “Fibre Lash” in the UK!

Now I am a bit of a lash addict and i love false lashes, particularly individual lashes as they give you that extra bit of glamour without being overly obvious. So the concept of “Fibre Lash” which allows you to brush on false lashes and get rid of the messy glue, fiddly lashes and fear that one might fall onto your cheek at a really embarrassing moment sounded too good to be true….

The product comes with two tubes, one containing extension mascara and the other the lash fibres. The first step is to coat your lashes with the mascara, then second follow with the fibres. This is slightly weird to get used to as the tiny white hairs stick all over your lashes and look quite strange.

Finally you finish with a top coat of mascara which miraculously binds and pulls the fibres together and they create extensions to your own lashes.

So the verdict…

Yes the product does work, it does extend your lashes and make them look longer and slightly thicker. However it takes a bit of perfecting, as leave too long between steps and you will end up with clumpy spidery lashes.

Unfortunately it’s not enough to replace the full effect you achieve with false lashes as the product doesn’t quite give you enough length and volume to bin the false lashes just yet!

Then there is the price…£35 is expensive for a mascara. I’m not sure how long it will last but I can’t see it outrunning 3 of my favourite Max Factor tubes which would be the equivalent cost.

So if you want a quick way to enhance your lashes on a day to day basis, then this is the product for you..but for a night out its time to get the glue out again, and hope you don’t return home with one stuck on your cheek.

http://www.boots.com/en/ModelCo-FIBRE-LASH-Brush-on-False-Lashes_1211542/