Estee Lauder Pure Colour Five Colour Eyeshadow Palette Surreal Skies

Estee Lauder has recently brought out six new Pure Colour eye shadow palettes and eight new duos. They are the same good quality as the reformulated Pure Colour single shadows and the same style packaging.
I got the most natural quad, Surreal Skies (£35).
It contains a slightly metallic coppery sand beige, satin finish clay, shimmery slightly mauve rose, shimmery golden ivory and a cool toned matte brown.
The palette creates a slightly warm, glowy natural look.
I really like the reformulated shadows, the texture feels smooth and they have good pigmentation and blend nicely. The revamp of the pure collection range by Tom Pecheux has enlivened the brand and created quality products now on par with some of the other major names.

I bought this from Boots.

Beauty Spotlight Team: Mystery Makeup Bag

It's time for another Mystery Makeup Bag post from the Beauty Spotlight Team. It's only the second post and we've already got some cheating going on! Modesty Brown is bending the rules and showing us what's in her holiday makeup bag. It looks pretty small though, surely that's never going to last a beauty blogger through a ten-day holiday? Let's see what's she's crammed got in there.....

Guerlain Rouge Automatique: Chant D’Aromes,Mitsouko & collection round up

I had to go back and get some more of the Rouge Automatiques (£24.50 each). Its a really hard working formula; good pigmentation,comfortable feel, beautiful shades and long wearing. I have nothing but praise for these.
I picked up #103 Chant D’Aromes (slightly warm beige nude)
#140 Mitsouko (sheer peach with gold shimmer).
Here are all the shades I have L-R: #100 Apres L’Ondee, #101 Voilette de Madame, #103 Chant D’Aromes, #140 Mitsouko #160 Bal de Mai
With Flash (same order as above, starting from top)

Swatches L-R: #160, #140, #103, #101 and #100
Ingredients:

I’ll likely go for some of the darker shades next time, repeat with me “you can never have too many lipsticks”.......


I bought these all from Debenhams

Illamasqua Skin Base Foundation

As a fan of the old formula of the liquid light foundation, I had high hopes for the new Skin Base foundation. The shade range is impressive, and the company have put a lot of work in helping the customer pick out their ideal shade with colour comparisons against other brands. I went with shade #2 (£25), its a spot on match for my pale, cool toned skin.
The foundation is inspired by the cult Asian market Beauty Balm creams, although I’ve not yet tried a BB cream, from what I can tell I would class this as a foundation as on me its does not contain a lot of the common attributes of a BB cream such as priming the skin, providing SPF and giving skin care benefits such as brightening and moisturising.

The texture is a medium consistency and feels smooth, it blends quite well and does not settle into pores. It gives medium coverage with a small amount of product. I’d say the finish is neither matte nor luminous, just natural.

Swatches below:Illamasqua on Left, MAC NC15 on right:

They are a few reasons this is not working for me, firstly its not moisturising enough on my dry skin and it really does accentuate dry areas. Secondly its not long lasting, by mid day its really faded and thirdly I do have skin issues every time I use this (I have to mention that my skin is hugely acne prone).
Ingredients:
Even though I have a very poor foundation success rate with most brands, I do feel this product just didn’t perform.

I bought this from www.illamasqua.com

BECCA Mineral Powder Blush: Flowerchild

Part of the summer Halcyon Days collection, Flowerchild is one of two mineral blush releases, the other being Damselfly, which I reviewed here.
The powders feel smooth, they are very pigmented so I apply with the faintest touch. One of the great attributes of these blushers is how long they last, there is no change of colour and I get no colour fade at all.

Flowerchild is a slightly coral pink with subtle golden shimmer, the look is luminous and natural.
Swatches L-R: Flowerchild, Damselfly swiped then Flowerchild, Damselfly blended out
Ingredients:

I bought this from zuneta.com

Beauty Spotlight Roundup 23/07/11

This week, the Beauty Spotlight Team shines the light on Le Metier de Beaute, helps us get our glow on, keeps us smelling great and has some awesome beauty goodies to giveaway!

Get your glow on! Pammy Blogs Beauty shares her top self-tanning tips & tricks.

Over at Lipstick Musings, Shannon's got a sweet tooth...and she's craving more of Laura Mercier's Luster Eye Shadow in Chocolate!

Visionary Beauty checks out the Mediterranean inspired Penelope Kaleidoscope from Le Metier de Beaute.

This week Modesty Brown goes nude with Kevyn Aucoin's Expert Lip Tint in ThelmaDora.

Cindy over at Prime Beauty shows you five must-have pink blushes for a fresh summer sun-kissed glow.

Makeup Merriment shares a great summer eyeshadow, Chanel Ombre d'Eau eyeshadow in Delta, with us. Check your stash to see if you have this too.

Find out what animal Marcia from Beauty Info Zone compares Napoleon Perdis lipsticks to and see if this is something that you do too.

Styrch at Pretty in Dayton gets frisky with her little bottle of LP No. 9 for Women by Penhaligons, LTD.

Perilously Pale gives us sneak peek swatches and a review of the Le Metier de Beaute Silk Road Kaleidoscope Eye Kit from the upcoming Fall/Winter 2011 Collection.

The nut jobs at Beauty Crazed have obviously been addled by the heat and are giving away a crazy amount of makeup - go enter before they come to their senses!

Londonmakeupgirl got a sneak peek at what you can expect to see from Selfridges for Holiday 2011. There's another beauty advent calendar, and some beautiful palettes from Bobbi Brown and Suqqu. Have a look here: Selfridges Christmas in July.

Paula, from Older Girl Beauty, wants to tell you about the Clarisonic Deep Pore Cleansing brush head and give one of them to you (*and your BFF!). She'll even throw in a Mia to use it with, too!

Zuzu's Petals at Everyday Beauty reevaluates what beauty represents for her and wonders what it means to you and how your views have evolved over the years.

Snowberry Smoothing Eye Serum

After my disappointment with La Mer The Eye Balm Intense, I thought it prudent to try an eye cream from a brand that I’d had a lot of success with. The Snowberry smoothing eye serum (£47.50) contains natural peptides and herbal extracts. The cream is designed to target eye puffiness and the depth of wrinkles, and compensates for the natural loss of thymic factors.
Its an almost yellowed brown colour but the colour doesn’t show on the skin once it sinks in. It has a lightweight texture and causes me no irritation (a lot of eye creams usually sting me).
I’ve used my one up now so here are my thoughts:
After about 3 weeks I noticed that my under eye area was smoother, my bags less visible, after about a month I noticed that my discoloration was slightly lessened. However, for my very dry eye area I did not find this provided enough moisture, if I was going makeup free its not a problem but when applying eye concealer I can tell the area appears less hydrated.
Its extremely difficult to get helpful before/after pictures as the lighting always seems to differ so these maybe somewhat redundant.
Before:
After:
I'm quite torn on this as this is is the best eye cream I have ever used for bags/puffiness and I do feel like my eye area looked brighter than before, but the moisture is an issue for me. If they brought out a richer version I would grab it in a second.
I do however think I likely re-buy this as I ran out of this about 2 week ago and I am really noticing my eye bags/puffiness are worse, so although its not perfect for me this is the best eye cream I have used thus far.

Ingredients:

I bought this from salonskincare.co.uk

Rouge Bunny Rouge Sheer Lipstick: Fluttering Sighs & “A Cappella” Autumn Look

If there is one RBR Sheer Lipstick that is without doubt a firm favourite amongst bloggers, its Fluttering Sighs (£21).

I can see why, the colour is undeniably delicate but beautiful, a sheer, shiny peachy pink with gold shimmer.
RBR lipsticks are probably the most moisturising/hydrating formula I have come across. They are smooth and feel very comfortable.

I also wanted to highlight the Autumn look “A Cappella”.
The look is soft, natural, delicate beauty.
Zuneta have done a really useful video showing the products in action; http://www.youtube.com/user/ZunetaBeauty#p/a/u/0/Wd7w9UC2j_g
Here's the picture of the products used to create the natural, luminous look.
Some things that interested me was the use of the Eyes Wide Open Brightening Liner Duo being used on areas other than the eyes, like the cheeks and cupid's bow, and I also really like the layering of the Eye Gloss over the cream shadow, my RBR wish list is now even longer!

All these products are available at zuneta.com

Disclosure: I was sent Fluttering Sighs for free.

Le Metier de Beaute Penelope Kaleidoscope Eye Kit

The Summer 2011 release of the Penelope Kaleidoscope Eye Kit ($95) seems to have captured many peoples hearts. As Le Metier left the UK this March, its fair to say that with every beautiful picture and accompanied glowing review I saw, the more I started contemplating paying ridiculous shipping costs and potential custom charges to get my hands on this. I was very fortunate that my lovely friend Jeanie from makeupmerriment.com was kind enough to pick this up for me.
The Kaleidoscope’s always consist of an interesting and often unexpected range of shades, mixing cools with warms.
The shadows are top to base:
Blonde Amber – sandy gold with shimmery glow
Pale Satin Amethyst – blue based lilac with satin finish
Bronze Topaz - a metallic bronzy taupe.
Black Emerald - rich emerald green with subtle shimmer.
Swatches:
The shadows are amazingly smooth and silky and have good pigmentation. They are extremely easy to work with as they apply and blend so effortlessly.
The colours are stunning, and have a beautiful glow about them. They layer so well, giving many possible combinations.
This is a really luxurious item in wear and result and is truly a delight to use.

Ingredients:

Jeanie bought this from Bergdorf Goodman

Beauty Spotlight Team: Mystery Makeup Bag

Twice a month the Beauty Spotlight Team will share a mystery makeup bag with you.
This week the honors go to Marcia from Beauty Info Zone.
Click on this link to find out what she has hiding! http://beautyinfozone.com/2011/07/16/the-beauty-spotlight-team-mystery-makeup-bag/

Real Techniques Travel Essentials

Going with the somewhat tenuous assumption that because these were designed by a makeup artist I like the work of, then they must be good; I took the chance and bought some of the Real Technique brushes designed by Samantha Chapman of Pixiwoo fame.

I went for the travel set (£18.99) it contains: Essential foundation brush, Domed shadow brush and a Multi-task brush
The bristles are synthetic taklon, hand cut and 100% cruelty free and come housed in a brush case/roll.

The Essential foundation brush is good for liquid foundation and under eye concealer and does not apply streaky nor do the bristles feel scratchy. Its smaller than a typical foundation brush but this means it really gets into the corners well.

The Multi-task brush, which is my favourite from the set, is good for liquid foundation, powder, blusher and bronzer, it applies colour well and blends it in nicely, it feels soft and comfortable on the skin.

The Domed shadow brush is very rounded and quite firm but not uncomfortably so. I tend to use it for blending shadows, I don’t like it much for actual shadow application.

The brushes wash up well with no spraying of hairs. For the price I am impressed. Whilst I wouldn’t say these exceed my currant brushes they are very good quality and useful brushes and I will definitely look into getting some of the other ones.

I bought these from love-makeup.co.uk, first time I have ordered from the site, it was packaged well and came extremely quick.

Rouge Bunny Rouge Joys & Desires Decadent Duo: Flamenco - Duende

Decadent duos (£28) are a compact double ended product consisting of a lip gloss and a liquid blush.
The lipgloss, shade Flamenco, has a doe foot applicator and has a medium consistency. Its slightly tacky and wears very well. The colour is a delicate peach beige with golden shimmer. The other side of the product has a liquid blush called Duende with a brush applicator. It feels lightweight and the colour is very buildable so on my fair skin I only apply a tiny amount. The colour is a warmed tawny beige.
Swatched below with my other decadent duo L-R: blush/gloss from Flamenco Duende duo, blush/gloss from Tango Argentino duo.
These are not the colours I would normally veer towards but I really like the warm natural look the duo give and I have received complements on how healthy I look when I wear this.

Swatched below of one tiny swipe of Duende blended out
I think these duos are really handy and great for travel. The colours complement each other extremely well so there is no guess work involved .They are just so easy to use with a great result.


INGREDIENTS:
LIQUID BLUSH: AQUA, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, MICA, CYCLOMETHICONE, SILICA, CETEARYL
ETHYLHEXANOATE, SODIUM POLYASPARTATE, BEHENETH-30, SQUALANE, CETEARYL ALCOHOL,
POLYACRILAMIDE, HEXYLDECANOL, GLYCERYL ISOSTEARATE, GLYCERYL STEARATE,
PHENOXYETHANOL, POTASSIUM CETYL PHOSPHATE, GLYCERIN, DIMETHICONE COPOLYOL, SODIUM
ACRYLATE/SODIUM ACRYLOYL, DIMETHYL TAURATE COPOLYMER, HEXYLENE GLYCOL,
HYDROGENATED PALM KERNEL GLYCERIDES, C13-14 ISOPARAFFIN, METHYLPARABEN,
PROPYLPARABEN, ISOHEXADECANE, ROSA CENTIFOLIA, CETEARYL GLUCOSIDE, POLYSORBATE 80,
HYDROGENATED PALM GLYCERIDES, LAURETH-7, XANTHAN GUM, CELLULOSE GUM, ASCORBYL
PALMITATE, TOCOPHEROL, SODIUM HYALURONATE, TETRASODIUM EDTA, FRUCTOSE, GLUCOSE,
SUCROSE, UREA, DEXTRIN, ALANINE, GLUTAMIC ACID, ASPARTIC ACID. +/- : CI 77891, CI 77491, CI 77492,
CI 77 499, CI 77007, CI 77510, CI 75470, CI 77163, CI 15850, CI 73360, CI 19140, CI 42090

GLOSS: POLYBUTENE, ISOCETYL STEARATE, TRIMETHYLOLPROPANE TRIISOSTEARATE, DIISOSTEARYL
MALATE, SILICA DIMETHYL SILYLATE, MICA, CALCIUM ALUMINUM BOROSILICATE, CALCIUM SODIUM
BOROSILICATE, PROPYLPARABEN, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, DICAPRYLATE/DICAPRATE, AROMA,
CAMELLIA SINENSIS, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, ZEA MAYS, OCTYLDODECANOL, IRVINGIA GABONENSIS,
NELUMBIUM SPECIOSUM, HYDROGENATED COCO-GLYCERIDES, SYNTHETIC FLUORPHLOGOPITE,
SILICA, TIN OXIDE, GINKO BILOBA, LIMONENE, CITRAL. +/-: CI 77891, CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499, CI 75470,
CI 77163, CI 15850, CI 45410, CI 73360, CI 42090, CI 19140, CI 15985, CI 45380

I got this as a GWP Zuneta was running, like many I was unable to resist such a good offer, its worth signing up to the Zuneta newsletter so that you can be the first in the know about the promotions they do.

Rouge Bunny Rouge is stocked by Zuneta.com (they offer international delivery)