Friday 12 August 2011

Clinique Black Honey

I am am getting so excited about autumn.

Now I know everyone loves summer (except me) and they want the sunshine (except me) and the long light nights (except me) but autumn is my favourite. It's not too cold, not too hot and my make up doesn't melt. Seriously, you can't even wear make up in NYC right now. It's heartbreaking.


But it's going to be OK. Soon I'll be able to launch into all of the wonderful Fall collections and smother my porcelain visage with all the slap Sephora has to offer. For starters, I'll be playing with Clinique's awesome new collection, The New Black. Inspired by their classic Black Honey gloss, the collection is So Pretty.

I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at this and have been all over the double ended lipgloss/almost lipstick - the only thing you can wear without fear of a meltdown right now - and I can't wait to start playing with the eye palette, perfect for a pretty smokey eye, on any eye colour but I think especially on blue eyes.
Which I happen to have.
Everything's coming up Millhouse!

Check it out at Clinique.co.uk

Saturday 6 August 2011

Benefit Cha Cha Tint

My love affair with Benefit Cosmetics goes back a Very Long Way. It was the heady days of the early 2000s and I was a student. A poor poverty stricken student. So what did I do with my days? Obviously I wasn't in university because I was a poor, poverty stricken English student so I only had about six hours of lectures and seminars a week (score). And I wasn't reading the books I was supposed to be reading because who does that? So I pretty much spent every waking hour, wandering around Boots and Debenhams in Nottingham, fiddling about with the make up counters. And my favourite? Benefit.



I'd read about Bad Gal and BeneTint of course but there were so may other wonderful things. The Bathina range, the Eye Bright pencil, Playsticks foundation, my beloved It Stick, not to mention High Beam, FY EYE (which I ended up bulk buying in Las Vegas two years later), Kitten body powder and You Rebel - the list goes on a bit, as you can see. And that's before Dandelion, Georgia and all the other wonderful powder boxes. The products were cute and quirky (as I wished to believe I was) and above all else, they were actually good. That's what I love about Benefit, its not style over substance, it's style and substance. Awesome.

That said, I was a bit wary when I saw the neon orange Cha Cha Tint bottle. I always have a bottle of BeneTint around (especially in the New York summer when a stain is an essential) and I've dabbled with PosieTint but a coral version? Really? But my concerns have been put well and truly to rest. I'm obsessed. As with the other tints in the Benefit range, you need to move quickly when applying so I like to do one cheek and then the other. Just two or three little dots, rubbed in to the apple of the cheek, blending up and back. Obviously, you should pop it wherever works best for you. For the lips, I love this way more than BeneTint. Cha Cha Tint has a more opaque formula and leaves such a fantastic colour on lips and obvs, if you've used it as your cheek colour, you've got perfect coordination right there but, because your natural lip colour comes into play, there's a subtle change, so you're not too matchy matchy.

Yes, it is a coral but it's a beautiful pinkish coral that looks fantastic in my pale skin as a cheek tint and lip colour and, while we were on the Marie Claire Inspire & Mentor tour, my agent - olive skin, brown hair - also picked up a bottle and looked amazing in it. Just so fresh and summery. So hurrah Benefit, you've done it again.

And you have also succeeded in reminding me of the time my grandad tried to teach me the cha cha cha and it was disaster.

Wednesday 3 August 2011

The Eyes Have It

I've heard it's a wee bit warm in England today.
Right. Get over it.
I've been back in NYC almost a week and it's really, really bloody warm. Almost 100 degrees warm, OK? Do you have any idea what this does to a girl's make up? Nothing good, let me tell you.



Happily, after much testing, I can confirm I have the perfect sunny day eye combo so that's one less thing for you to worry about. Prepare thyself...

Start with a primer if you have one (never hurts, I love Urban Decay's Primer Potion) then slick on a lid full of TopShop's longlasting eye crayon in Equinox. It's a beautiful pale gold that can be layered up for a more intense metallic finish or played down for a summery shimmer. Love. Now, the crayon lasts well on it's own but to really kick its arse, add a light brushing of Armani's Eyes to Kill Noka powder over the top. Somehow, this amazing product looks and feels like silk but gives the most intense metallic finish when layered. I mean, for reals the pay off here is intense.


For day, keep things light and just add a slick of your favourite waterproof mascara, then you're good to go. The metallic elements pick up the light and make your eyes sparkle but not in an overdone way, and they don't run or disappear halfway down your face. For night time, add a charcoal grey liner close to the lashline for definition or go a little crazier with a deep espresso brown, then add a couple more layers of the Armani powder for a really intense, sexy, smudgy smokey eye. And obviously, several thousand more coats of mascara.
I'm in love.


*Not an original post title I know, but I'm on a book deadline here, what more do you want?

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