Benefit goes undercover

EVEN A SUPER SLEUTH CAN'T DETECT FAKE UP!

The trouble with concealer is it can highlight what you’re trying to disguise. More often than not it’s either because of the shade, or less obviously the texture – many can actually be quite drying on the skin, ending up looking cakey. Not with Benefit’s new Fake Up which goes totally incognito.

Going undercover to cover-up you would have to be a super beauty sleuth to detect once on the skin. In fact you would have to be Sherlock Holmes! The clues are there. It’s a crease control formula, has a hydrating ring that gives immediate, six hour long moisturization, and the thing I love most, it looks like a lipstick. So, when you’re make-up bag falls open it doesn’t look like your flawless complexion relies on a concealer to cover up blemishes. Elementary my dear Benefit!

Fake Up is hits counter in April priced at £18.50.

 Available in three shades: light, medium and deep.

No7 does ballet

NO7 POINTES TO PRETTY

Boots reveal that a quarter of UK women are planning on trying a new look this year. This may sound easy peasy, but really how many of us are stuck in a Groundhog Day beauty rut? We may admire and appreciate the newest colours and trends, but wearing them is a whole other matter.

EXCUSE MY CRUMBLED APPEARANCE!

If there’s one make-up artist that inspires us to move on from beige eyeshadow it’s Lisa Eldridge, an artist that adopts trends and makes them utterly wearable. Her tutorials are followed closely and by many on her website as the step-by-steps are goof proof. Her insider tips second to none. As No7’s Creative Director you know with each season this brand will introduce an on-trend make-up story masterminded by Lisa.

NAILS GO PRETTY

This Spring No7 aims to pirouette into our make-up bags. Their Limited Edition Ballerina Beauty Collection is full of super pretty pink and tawny shades that can't help but bring the skin to life. Lisa’s two breakout stars are the Ballerina Beauty Blush Palette (excuse the slightly crumbled appearance) which gives a wash of light-up-your-skin glow, and a new nail hue cutely called Tip Toes from their Stay Perfect Nail range. A shimmering nude which catches the light. The collection infuses  Lisa's two loves - 60’s make-up and the prettiness of ballet complete with up-dos, she's  she’s created a look that’s both beautiful and directional.  “It’s all about feminine glamour,” says Lisa. “I just love the dewy complexion paired with subtle lips which contrasts against 60’s fluttering lashes. Ta Dah indeed!

Ballerina Beauty Blush Palette, £12
Tip Toes Nail Polish, £6
Both are Limited Edition and available until 19th March whilst stocks last

Clarins blooms for spring

THE IRIS. A FLOWER OF INTENSE BEAUTY

Just had to do a short and sweet post on Clarins two star products for their gorgeous spring colours inspired by the beauty of the Iris flower.

The Limited Edition Face & Blush Powder, £30 (below) has the Iris imprinted on the trio of complexion enlivening shades to give skin a spring glow and even tone. A silky-smooth compact, simply whirl a soft brush over to pick up all shades and dust over the face. The Light-Optimizing + Complex reduces the intensity of lines and imperfections for a flawless finish.

The Limited Edition Eye Quartet Mineral Palette, £30 (above) is a line up of four shimmering mineral eye shades. The Iris is a 'showy' flower and this reflects in the shades of an intense plum, white highlighter, nutmeg brown and a deep black liner. Smudge, blend and shade for a bewitching eye.

In store now or online at www.clarins.co.uk

Shampoo with science

COULD WATER BE YOUR HAIR BREAKER?

It’s amazing how water can make or break you hair. I can always tell the difference when holidaying somewhere ‘soft’ in terms of water, say Cornwall where my hair acts in a completely different way to it does in London. In otherwords, before product help, the texture of my hair can swing from feeling rough and tangled in a hard water area to lank and no-can-do to a soft water area. Whether hard or soft water runs from your shower head there’s now a shampoo line that actively works with your water type to give you more manageable hair.

MY NEW WATER BABIES

Area H20 are products that attracts the metal ions that are present in every water type and allows you to wash them away easily before they react with your shampoo to form deposits. Developed by London hairdresser, Patrick Lehane along with biochemists, it’s a line that results in cleaner, better behaved hair. More than just shampoo psychobabble, it does work. My hair came away from the shower feeling cleaner, squeaky even after shampooing. Whilst blow-drying my hair literally felt lighter. The press release throws science at me in terms of insoluble salt resides for hard water and sodium content and desalinated water for soft, but essentially my hair is just telling me it likes this shampoo and conditioner. It doesn’t feel stripped, dehydrated or wrung through the wash, it just feels nice. And isn’t that what we all want from our shampoo and conditioner?

Area H20 Hard, Medium or Soft Water Shampoo for Normal to Fine Hair, £9.95

Area H2) Hard, Medium or Soft Water Shampoo for Coloured Hair, £9.95

H20 Hard, Medium or Soft Water Conditioner, £9.95

Each variant is also available in duo packs at £17.50

Available from www.AreaH20.co.uk

Posh lips

 

There’s lipstick and then there’s lipstick. And when Tom Ford slam dunks the beauty world with a collection of ten new lip shades you know you're in for a treat.

 

As you would expect from a perfectionist - I've heard his attention to detail is second to none, the collection is nothing but beautiful. To the way it looks to the way it applies. A hybrid between a lipstick and a gloss, the bullet slides across the lips to create a semi-transparent, hi-shine veil of colours that imparts sensuality, and moisturises the lips something wonderful. That may just be the ingredients of chamomilla flower oil and Brazilian murumuru butter.  The finish is mwah! Willful, a gorgeous orange red shade hasn’t been off my lips since I discovered it two weeks ago.

 

As for colour, lips will knock themselves out with the range of shades. Cherry pick from neutrals, through to pinks and vivids. At £36 they cash in more than your average lipstick, but who wants average?

 

Stockists: 0870 034 2566

 

 

 

Bourjois has an eye for a trend

CASSIE IN ACTION

It’s always a pleasure hooking up with Cassie Lomas, chief make-up artist for Bourjois. Chatty, friendly and passionate about make-up, Cassie is an insider that has the ability to take a trend and make it beautifully wearable. Witness her 60’s eye with a twist for the look she created for Clements Ribeiro’s SS13 look.

AN EYE FOR A TREND

“I wanted to create the perfect retro shade of powder blue eyeshadow,” reveals Cassie. “For this I mixed two products together – a creamy Metallise eyeliner pencil in shade Bleu Clinquant Metallise, £4.99 with a little touch of Healthy Mix Brush Concealer, £8.49 into the colour on the back of my hand. I then smudge the shade across the eyelids.” To set the colour Cassie dabbed a little Bourjois Round Pot Eyeshadow in their just-launched shade 17 – a very pretty azure powder blue. When I dropped into her masterclass that showed how to replicate the runway look, Cassie up-swung the trend further by lining the lash line with Bourjois’s Pinceau Liner, £6.99. “Wing out so it looks graphic and strong, not Pat Butcher,” Cassie reveals. 

THE RUNWAY LOOK SHEET

The rest of the face was kept super simple using the much feted Healthy Mix Serum Foundation, £10.99 which Cassie buffs onto the skin using a fluffy brush. Lips were played down with a slick of Rouge Edition Lipstick in nude. The result? Retro gorgeous!

Darphin adds to its skin arsenal

FLOWERS FROM THE LAUNCH TO ILLUSTRATE THE BLOOM OF YOUTH!

Magazines may tell us 30 is the new 20, but we just wish our brain receptors would tell our skin! Yep, 30 and beyond are great ages, more experience, more wisdom, more settled... but it’s also a time when there’s more changes to the skin.

The French brand, Darphin who have clocked up more than 50 yeas in anti-ageing expertise reveal that once we hit the big 3-0, skin flips from youthful to needy. Lines start appearing around the eyeline, forehead and mouth. That pink cheeked perkiness loses its radiance and skin’s bank of youthful resources is gradually depleted. Although emergency measures aren’t needed, help certainly is, which is why this month they’re introducing two skincare innovations in their Ideal Resource skincare line. Cleverly called the Wrinkle Minimizer Perfecting Serum and the Micro-refining Smoothing Fluid – who wouldn’t want a bit of this skin treatment jargon? They both profess to give a triple action of targeting radiance, lines and texture.

THE PERFECT SKIN COUPLE

Kapow! At the heart of both products is their hard working botanical trio called The Line Polish Complex. Knotweed, White Hibiscus and Centella Asiatica all dance together and support the natural cell renewal of the skin, smooth the appearance of winkles and help to minimise imperfections. In tests, 35% saw an instant result in radiance, and after four weeks, 29% of women said skin texture had improved in terms of softness and less visible pores.

The Wrinkle Miminizer Perfecting Serum, £59 works specifically on lines. Rich in Tannin Tree Extract, it helps support the skin’s natural collagen fibres.

The Micro-refining Smoothing Fluid, £50 feels like velvet and helps the sloughing of dull skin, much like an exfoliator. It’s ideal for the 40% of women over the age of 25 who have combination or oily skin as it boasts shine control powers.

The Ideal Resource Line is available from selection Darphin salons and online from 6^th February.

www.darphin.co.uk