Beauty Buzz - Rimmel makes it to Belgium!

I can't believe I'm writing this in 2011. 2011. I mean, there have been 4 (I think) types of iPhone by now, iPads, HD-3D TVS, the first passenger space flight is imminent, everyone is tweeting left right and centre.... in other words, major advances in science and technology and major changes to the way we conduct our lives and yet.....
..... Rimmel has only just made it to Belgium, like, this week!

Kate had been putting off that trip to Belgium for a while now...

Come on Belgium, what's up with you? Wakey, wakey!! Eventually they get there.... eventually.

So there is some reason to rejoice because I'd usually have to wait months to get back to London and grab a few bits and bobs from Boots or Superdrug and now Rimmel is here I can at least feel more connected to 'home' if that makes sense.

The bad news is that (surprise surprise) the currency transition seems to have been, ahem, lost in translation.

Examples: Nail polish €6.99, Mascara €11.99, Lipstick €8.99

Hel-lo? What happened to cheap (yet reliable) and cheerful?

It pains me to buy it here knowing that it's not only significantly cheaper in the UK but also with all the 3 for 2s and various vouchers you get from Boots etc it often works out at even better value. You'd be hard pushed to find any concessions here. At best it's usually something totally lame like 20 cents off a €12 euro foundation or €1.50 off when you buy two of something you would only ever want one of in the first place.

Yes I'm ranting now, but at some point I may just cave in (just like I did with Lush.... now there's a price hike for you).

Also new to Belgium (how can this be???) is Max Factor. Admittedly the stand I saw in Di (the nearest we'll ever get to Superdrug, but without the 'drugs') looked lovely and shiny with a good selection of products on offer. But again.... those prices.

Which leads me to ask.... is there really such a thing as cheap make-up these days? The price hikes in so called drugstore brands actually lead me to buy more high-end stuff, like Chanel and Dior, just because those prices are comparable throughout Europe and the UK and therefore I don't feel as ripped off. Funny logic maybe, but I don't see why Belgian residents should have to pay such an excessive amount for products which elsewhere are half the price or less.

Take Sinful Colors nail polish. Stateside it's an uber budget drugstore nail polish that retails for $1.99 (about €1.47 according to today's exchange rate).

Here in Di it retails for €5.95 (roughly $8.00). Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's a 400% mark-up. No amount of shipping costs or customs tax could possibly justify that.

My problem is that I'm just too informed. Maybe ignorance is bliss.....

What's your take on this?


Both Rimmel and Max Factor are available in Di stores but not all of them will be stockists. Will have to double check if Inno stocks them too.  

Coralicious!

It's not exactly been fun and games chez moi this week, the winter blues suddenly arrived unannounced and at the same time the boiler broke down. So what did I do? I painted my nails. Coral. Oh how I love this colour.... so vibrant, juicy and oh-so cheering to look it. I can honestly say that staring at my hands all week has saved my sanity, after all nail polish is the only make-up that we can admire on ourselves. All that slap on our faces is mostly for the benefit of others. Lucky them!
I have worshipped nail polish from a very young age, and always begged my mum to buy me that peel-off nail varnish that was sold in toy shops. She acquiesced on occasion, but more often or not it did not satisfy my curiosity for the real stuff. I knew the real stuff was better. It stayed on for more than 5 minutes for a start and the colours.... oh the colours! I wanted nothing more than fuschia pink, shiny nails, and one day I got them, much to my mum's disgust. I must have found a bottle lying around and I just went for it. She promptly removed the colour with acetone and told me that it was not right for me to have painted nails at my age (I think I was about 8). Of course, this just made me want them more. One of the first make-up items I ever bought was a bottle of pale pink pearly nail polish by Rimmel from the old Woolworths store in Camden Town. I agonised for ages over which colour to spend my pocket money on, and decided in my wisdom to choose a pale "natural" colour that wouldn't make my mum go ballistic. In reality the colour was horrible. A thick, white-y pink which was so pearly it was tacky. I didn't really understand tacky until I put this colour on my nails. I remember feeling a bit sick that I had wasted my money on something so unwearable. I'm pretty sure that after that incident I didn't buy another nail polish until my first visit to Harrods some 7 years later where I made straight for the Chanel counter and purchased a bottle of Rouge Noir. I think I still have the original bottle somewhere, all thick and gloopy, but of tremendous sentimental value nonetheless.
So back to this week, and my gorgeous coral nails, courtesy of Coralicious, by Rimmel. My, how Rimmel have improved over the years.

Now, I'm not sure if it's the polish or the base coat, but for the first time in my life, no exaggeration, my manicure stayed in an entirely decent state for almost a week. If I had been clever I would have painted my nails with another colour and the same base coat today (Boots Expert Nail Ridge Filler) in order to see which of the two was the miracle product but at the moment I have a strong feeling that it has something to do with the ridge filling base coat. It certainly creates the smoothest nail base I've ever encountered.

And it's good old Boots' brand, nothing fancy...
So completely enamoured am I by Coralicious that I put it on again today so that I can have another week of juicy, summery nails! Another first for me, sticking with the same colour. Usually I get bored after 2 days, or it chips off, and I always switch colours, however this time I think I have finally found my Holy Grail colour. It brightens up everything I wear and garners compliments everywhere I go but, above all, it makes me happy. Who says colour therapy doesn't work?