L'Oreal Infallible Sculpt & Blush Sculpt - Review

Hello pigeons!

It's been a while, I know. I'm sorry. The irony is that I have so much to tell you it's almost overwhelming. There have been some awesome products getting a lot of my love recently which I've failed to update you on. I've been thinking I really ought to make a list so that I can organise my thoughts more coherently and then I won't feel too overwhelmed to write about it all!

I thought I'd kick-start my writing again with a little show-and-tell of a couple of new products that have hit Boots this week; the L'Oreal Infallible Sculpt and the Blush Sculpt.

Contouring is MASSIVE. It's really become a mega trend in the last year, so much so that almost all of the budget brands have now launched their own take on how to chisel your cheeks. I don't know how it got so huge, and a part of me wonders if it's just another ploy to make us even more paranoid about our features and make us part with even more moolah than we already do. Well, it's made me paranoid enough to start noticing photos where I haven't contoured in some way.

So here's a little first-impressions on these two new face babies from L'Oreal seeing as I only acquired them today. First up, the Infallible Sculpt:

L'Oreal Infallible Sculpt in Light-Medium

This is a decent-sized palette with two balmy cream-to-powder compacts. There are two colour options available, light-medium and medium-dark. This is the light-medium one which I think would be fine for very pale to medium olive complexions. The darker side is the contour and the pale side the highlight, although it doesn't behave like other highlighters...more on this later.

It's not clear how you're supposed to apply this, there is no brush supplied as L'Oreal have created their own to buy separately (out of stock where I was today). I tried using my fingers to stripe the product on which worked fine, although a brush of some sort works better for blending (I used a Real Techniques expert face brush).

The pigmentation is just enough for a gentle contour effect and it blends out really nicely. The feeling is like a silky balm (obviously it's silicone based) but the texture feels much more sophisticated and high-end than I was expecting. It's very similar to the YSL Le Teint Sahariennes cream-to-powder bronzer in fact, expect the colour is much more suited to contouring as it's much cooler in tone.

The paler side of the palette I'm not overly enamoured with. It just seems to look a bit ashy on the skin. There is no perceptible shimmer or gleam, and I can't work out how it's any better than using any other highlighter, or even nothing at all. However, I'm going to give it another chance this week when I test it out a bit more.

L'Oreal Blush Sculpt in Nude Beige

The Blush Sculpt on the other hand I totally love! There seem to be 3 shades available at the moment, and I chose Nude Beige as I've not seen anything quite like those shades. In reality the name is misleading as it's more of a peachy copper and my goodness it's really gorgeous! The idea is that you swipe the darker shade lower on the cheek, and then top up with the paler one and then the highlight on the top. This is what I've done here in the photos but to be honest you get a beautiful effect when you just swipe a brush over all three shades and use it like that, it just seems to sculpt naturally, I don't know how!

So, here's mon visage avec a bucket-load of contour products! My camera phone is pants and the lighting is pants but the idea is to show the shade contrast and at least you get the idea. As you can see the effect is pretty soft (although in real life you can see it more) and the colour of the blush is just so pretty. It is on the shimmery side but this seems to fulfill the highlighting element quite nicely. It's not garish shimmer by any means but just seems to enliven the complexion really beautifully.

( If you're interested the rest of the make-up is: Bourjois CC cream over Laura Mercier Radiance Primer (holy grail primer BTW), Clarins Instant concealer, on the eyes Laura Mercier eyeshadows in Morning Dew and Fresco with Stila liquid liner and Dolly Wink Volume Mascara, on lips Revlon Red Colorstay lip pencil with a bit of lip balm)

At the moment the Infallible Sculpt is on offer at £6.99 (will be £9.99) and the Blush is £7.99. L'Oreal is on 3 for 2 at the moment as well.

I'll be back soon with some more make-up juice for you all, sweetpeas! Hope you enjoyed this little update!

OMG she's back....

....and maybe here to stay????

I'm probably talking to no one right now, and perhaps ever again.... but if you are reading this then please, please leave me a comment or message! It's been so long since I last wrote that I'm sure this page has been the web equivalent of a ghost town..... echoes of previous posts howling in the winds.... html detritus blowing about.... you get the drift.

So think of this as a kind of re-development, a renaissance of sorts. I've been meaning to get back here for too long now, and it was only after a chance encounter today with a lovely make-up artist and hopefully, new friend, that I decided that I couldn't let all my writing go to waste. She was so enthusiastic when I mentioned I 'used to' have a blog that I really began to believe in it again and so, here I am!

This blog has always been my outlet for writing about something I love very much, all things beauty related. It's semi-autobiographical with a few nail polish shots and product reviews thrown in. I know that I have missed it, and I know that I need it back in my life. I welcome you to join in my journey here and add any contributions.

I'm also thinking of starting a Facebook page and.... I'm thinking of changing the title, but I'm yet to come up with something I'm happy with.

Until my first 'useful' post in ages, I'll leave you for now with a short list of a few of my current favourite products:

Make-up

Clarins Instant Concealer, Dolly Wink Volume Mascara, Bareminerals Eye BB 5-in-1, Estee Lauder Double Wear All-Day Glow

Estee Lauder Double Wear All-Day Glow - simply gorgeous, medium coverage which gives  a stunning healthy look to the skin.

Clarins Instant Concealer - Amazing coverage, beautiful finish, much hyped, hype is deserved.

Dolly Wink Volume Mascara - The only mascara I've ever found that holds a curl and does everything you'd want a mascara to. Only available from Japan sadly.

Bare Minerals 5-in-1 BB eye shadow - A surprise hit..... eye-smoothing, priming, colour... all in one. I love these!

Skincare

Apivita Serums, Decleor Micellar Oil, Vichy Normaderm Night Detox

Decleor Micellar Cleansing oil - Nothing removes make-up, even waterproof, faster. Seriously. Nothing.

Actually, anything Decleor is pretty amazing.

Vichy Normaderm Night Detox - Fantastic at sorting out troubled skin overnight. Angry spots are calmed, and skin looks radiant in the morning.

Apivita serums - I have both the Radiance and Hydration serums. These are beautiful, light and mostly natural and I've noticed that they do make a difference to how my skin looks and feels.

Bodycare

L'Occitane Almond Milk Concentrate body cream

Anything from the L'Occitane almond range.

Anything from L'Occitane in general.



There you have it, my lovelies...... I've broken the spell of blogging inertia.

Clarins Instant Light Lip Perfector Review

I have a love-hate relationship with my lips.
I've been told on many occasions that I have nice lips but I've never really thought that they were good enough to be emphasised. They are not particularly voluminous a la La Jolie, or my gorgeous friend O, but neither are they thin. Slap bang in the middle I think you'd say, but for some reason I feel very self-conscious drawing attention to my mouth, despite the fact that I own 2 or 3 bright red showstopping lipsticks.

I think that there is something overwhelmingly bold about emphasising the mouth and, without going too Freudian about it, provocative lips have long been thought to be a mirror to 'what must not be seen'....

*blushes*

And now onto the review.... *clears throat*

Not surprisingly, being a little lip-colour shy, I prefer to wear very neutral, pale lips in general. I'd heard good things about Clarins Instant Light Lip perfectors, and when I was last at Brussels Airport I found a nifty little duo pack exclusive to travel retail (how I LOVE travel retail, especially when travelling sans Mr P...).

Clarins Lip Perfector Duo pack, exclusive to Travel Retail

So what are these 'lip perfectors'. Well, I'm not sure I would have believed it myself if I hadn't tried them, but they literally do 'perfect' your lips. A hybrid between a gloss and a balm, these work by illuminating, smoothing and volumising the lips. Think of them as a lip 'foundation', over which you need apply nothing else.

In the travel exclusive I picked up were two full sizes, one in Rose Shimmer (01) and the other in Apricot Shimmer (02). The names are misleading as there isn't really strong  shimmer in either of them, more of a 'glow'. I guess they refer to the microscopic light reflecting particles which work by playing on the light and giving you that illuminated perfection as promised.

Apricot Shimmer (above) & Rose Shimmer

As you can see from the swatches below 01 is more pink-toned and 02 more peachy. On the lips you can see the difference between them but it's not huge. In fact, I leave one at home and carry the other with me for touch-ups as they are pretty much interchangeable.

Top: Rose Shimmer (01), Bottom: Apricot Shimmer (02)

The packaging is a squeezy tube from which the product is dispensed via a foam tip with several teensy holes (see photo).  There are probably some hygiene questions to be raised regarding the foam tip, but I've no intention of using these on anyone but myself and I suppose I could wash the tip in good old soap 'n' water if I ever get grossed out by my own germs. I have to say though, I do like the feeling of the sponge tip on my lips, it smooths the product onto them really effectively.

Clarins Lip Perfector, sponge applicator tip

The texture is is that of a creamy lip balm. It feels wonderfully smooth on the lips and not sticky at all and there is a very light sweet 'candy' fragrance which is very pleasant and non-intrusive.

When I first applied this it looked like a lovely, neutral looking lip-gloss. Pretty enough, but nothing wow. After 15-20 minutes though, after it settled onto the lips, I looked in the mirror and just saw wonderfully smooth lips! It was as if a magic wand had been waved and all the little imperfections, dry patches and uneven colour had melted into oblivion and I was just left with a naturally airbrushed pout.

Bare lips

With Clarins Instant Light Lip Perfector - Rose Shimmer (01)

Bare lips (different light, sorry!)

With Clarins Instant Light Lip Perfector - Apricot Shimmer (02)

Result! I actually started to appreciate my lips, thinking that maybe they weren't so bad after all.

As far as volumising is concerned, I think this is achieved via the illusion of smoothness. Smoother lips tend to look more volumised, but this is by no means a magic potion for a trout pout.

I have also been using this as a lip balm and it works really well under normal circumstances, although for this awful cold snap we're having at the moment it needs bolstering with a proper lip balm.

If you feel like your lips need a little makeover then I would definitely recommend this marvelous little lip perfector. It's the perfect 'no make-up' make-up for everyday healthy looking lips. You can stick it in your pocket and apply it without a mirror and you don't even need a separate lip balm.

I paid a bargainous €19.90 for this set at Brussels Airport.
In the UK I've seen them priced at between £12 to £15, so definitely shop around.
Around Europe prices vary obviously and on the French Clarins website the official price is €14.80 but when you're next at the airport, wherever that may be, have a look out for the duo set. I'm certainly glad I have two of them!


Score: 10/10

Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel Review (and brief comparison with Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish)

You know how you make a mental note to do things and then those mental notes stack up like pancakes (mmmmm, pancakes.... ) and you never get round to eating (doh!), I mean doing them?

Well, I have shelves and drawers crammed full of products I've been meaning to review and instead they just pile up like Mr P's shirts waiting patiently to be ironed. I prefer the pancake analogy, but anyhow....

So, a skincare review.Yay! Hopefully this will be useful :)

I'm a Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish addict. My addiction began back in 2005 and I've never looked back. It really is the best cleanser I've found and the only one which removes eye make-up properly at the same time as cleansing the rest of the face. I love everything about it, the smell, texture, the cloth that comes with, the way my skin feels afterwards. But there are a gazillion reviews of this on the net and I'm not going to add to them. Just know from me that I adore it.

But you can't buy it in Belgium. Sob. And I stupidly let myself run out of it back in June. Double sob. So I figured I should try and break the addiction and hunt down a similar product which would cleanse and remove eye make-up in one fell swoop. After about a week of futile searching and the trauma of me butchering the French language in an attempt to explain to the shop assistants what I was after, I actually only found one product which looked like it could do the job of C & P.

The Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel is an elusive little tube of orange gloop which seems to hide away behind the myriad of other Clarins cleansers on offer. It's a thick smooth gel which you massage onto dry skin and as you do so it transforms into a light oil. You can take it all over the eyes and remove eye make-up too. It then transforms into a light milk when you apply water and rinse it off. You can also use a washcloth to remove the excess.

I'll tell you straight off, this is not a bad product. In fact, it's a lovely product. You only need a small blob about the size of a 5 pence (or 5 cent) piece to cover the whole face. The gel seems to magically spread once it becomes an oil and it feels quite luxurious  to massage into the skin. The scent is clean and 'soapy'. It's a bit more artificially perfumed than I would like, but that's because I'm totally in love with the fresh eucalyptus scent of C & P.

Now the big question... does it perform as well as C & P?

In short, no. I can get every scrap of eye make-up off with C & P. This leaves me with areas of black in-between my lashes and under the eyes which I have to go over sometimes with a separate eye make-up remover. I also find that if I tone my skin after I'm still removing a bit of make-up and grime which does not happen with C & P.

Also, this stings my eyes if it runs into them when I'm rinsing it off. C & P does not sting my eyes at all.

As cleansers go I actually like the Clarins one despite that fact that it's not perfect. Most face cleansers are either milks, lotions or straight oils and you need a separate eye make-up remover. This one is  truly an all in one product.

In the last few weeks my skin has been breaking out a lot so I've changed my skincare regime. More on that soon. I don't think the break-outs are due to using this cleanser but I've gone back to C & P just because it's comforting to me when my skin is stressed like it is.

I still have quite a bit of the pure melt gel remaining and I've been using it all summer. I picked up two C & P pumps last time I was in London and I couldn't help but start using it again despite the fact that there is an ample amount of the Clarins still left in the tube. Naughty, naughty.... but like I just said, I feel like my skin needs it.

I would score Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel at 7/10 which is a respectable score. I'm sure that I would love it more if I hadn't already had C & P in my life.

Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel is €21.20 here in Brussels and £18.50 in the UK, although prices vary on different websites so shop around. Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish (with cloth) is £13.75.