BECCA Illuminate Wash

A while ago Zuneta was offering a Becca gift with purchase of the Illuminate Wash (£20). Not one able to miss out on an offer I placed my order.
Its a water based highlighter/enhancer that comes in a tube (8.5ml) with a brush tipped applicator.
Its a somewhat warm champagne, I find it similar to Armani fluid sheer in shade#2 and whilst the Becca does contain shimmer its not as noticeable on the skin as with the Armani.
Swatched below L-R: Swiped, blended in
What this product gives is a sheer luminous glow, skin instantly looks more healthy. I think this fits with the candlelight glow image. Where this excels over a lot of other highlighters is that there is no frostiness or metallic sheen.
It glides on really smooth and just blends in beautifully, there is no stickiness or tackiness to it and it lasts the whole day for me. This has become an essential product for me and I will definitely be buying this when its run out. A fabulous product which deserves some attention.

Ingredients:


I got this as a gift with purchase via zuneta.com

Beauty Spotlight Team Mystery Makeup Bag

It's time for a look inside another Beauty Spotlight Team member's makeup bag, and this week it is Older Girl Beauty's turn to pull back the zipper and she what she keeps close at hand. By the looks of it, it seems like she might just have the kitchen sink in there - let's look and see what Paula has in her makeup bag...

Rare Elements Pure Shampoo & Essential Conditioner

Rare Elements is a luxury range of natural haircare products. They do not contain sulphates, parabens or silicones. Its a simplified range of a pre treatment, shampoo and conditioner.
I've not had the best success with the more natural ranges, I often find they weigh my hair down and make it look lank. The range however did intrigue me and Grace's review tipped me over the edge.

The shampoo (£25) has a lotion consistency, it spreads well through the hair, foams adequately and rinses out well. The conditioner (£30) has a rich cream consistency, its so concentrated you only need a tiny bit.
The results of these products is that they give my hair a bounce, my hair looks more vibrant and less frizzy and I do not get the lank look.

Another very important benefit to me is that these do not break me out ( the majority of haircare I try gives my break outs/rashes along my hair line and sides of face where my hair rests against).

Whilst the conditioner will be a definite re-buy, I can see that the shampoo will work out quite expensive for me in the long run as I wash my hair everyday but I think I'll likely re-buy due to the results.
I'd recommend the shampoo for all hair types but I think the conditioner is best suited to those with dry hair.

Ingredients:
(misebeauty.com also list the full ingredients)

I bought these from www.misebeauty.com, they have very quick delivery and I have always had samples put in with my orders so I think they are definitely a site worth bookmarking.

Laura Mercier Petite Eye Colour Trio Smoky Mauves

So the season begins, enticing little holiday sets start to appear at the counters and there is no point in trying to resist....
So here we have the Smoky Mauves Petite Eye Colour Trio (£20), one of 3 trios launched for the Laura Mercier holiday collection.
Smoky Mauves contains sparkling dew (slightly shimmered pinked cream), wisteria (slightly shimmered warmed mauve with a hint of brown) and kir royal (deep plum with subtle micro glitter).
The pigment is good and they feel smooth (although Kir royal is slightly less smooth), I do have to wear an eye base with these.
Its called Smoky Mauves and that's exactly what you get. Nothing astounding here but if you don't have similar shades this is a nice concise palette.

To show you the size, here it is against a MAC 4 pan

Sorry for the poor quality eye look picture but I had to take this with a flash whilst in a rush and this was the best of a bad bunch
One of the LM holiday offerings that really did catch my eye (I was scuppered as they didn't have it in stock yet) was the eye pencil set, really good value at £31 for 5 full sized Kohls so I'll try and pick one up.

I bought this from John Lewis.

Trish McEvoy: Chic and Sheer Collection

The fall chic and sheer collection provides an extremely wearable, polished look. There are no harsh colours here or anything that will look ageing, instead the products are able to give gentle definition; effortless and perfect for everyday.
The two eyeshadows are French Vanilla (Deluxe size £18) which is a slightly warm toned vanilla and Soft Grey (£12) true medium grey.
Both of the shadows have a matte formula. The texture is really smooth, applies evenly with good pigment and blends with ease.

The collection also includes the Brush 62 Fan (£28), its flat, with an arched shape.
It feels lightweight and gently against the skin. I think this brush is genius, it applies a light dusting of product, never over done, its also great for precision cheekbone highlighting and for applying a whisper of powder to set my under eye concealer.

For size comparison here is the brush against the medium compact
The Bronzer in Golden (£22) is limited edition. Its very smooth, has good pigment and applies really well.
As I am very pale there are very few bronzers I can wear so I was surprised this worked for me. I think application with the fan brush helped as it applies a sheer veil of colour. The shade is a medium gently shimmered bronze with a golden glow. It doesn't go on with any red or orange tones like a lot of bronzers do. It works to give definition and a healthy natural glow, I also really like it applied to the eyes in the crease.

Swatches below: French Vanilla, Soft Grey, Golden Bronzer, Golden Bronzer blended in.

The light wasn't so good today so I'll try and get some eye look pictures up for you soon.

The collection also includes a SPF 15 lipstick in shade Mulberry, a Beauty Booster SPF 15 Lip Gloss and a Beauty Booster SPF 15 Lip Balm. I really want to get the Mulberry lipstick, its not currently on the Selfridges website to buy separately so I'll keep my eye out for it, of course while perusing the website I had to console myself and buy a few other Trish McEvoy goodies instead so I'll be showing you those soon.

Trish McEvoy are available online from selfridges.com

Disclosure: I was sent these items for free.

Dolce & Gabbana Luminous Cheek Colour Rose

I have wanted a D&G blush for a while, unfortunately not the shades that happened to be on the Harrods site. Such was my "need" for one of these I started contemplating the shade Rose, I was very fortunate that makeup magpie helped me out by doing a really useful comparison post of the shade.

The Luminous Cheek Colour (£29) has a smooth texture, however its not got a soft/creamy feel like some brands, I'd actually say it feels on the dryer side and as a result of this I found the colour tended to grab onto my dry skin and I do have to blend more than normal. The colour is a warmed pink rose and it is very pigmented, I apply this very lightly.

The finish is not shimmery, nor does it seem completely matte, it just gives a flush with a hint of a glow. I'd say the wear is average.

Swatched below:Swiped on the left, blended on the right
Whilst I really like the shade it hasn't made me crave any more D&G blushers as I do prefer the texture/application of my By Terry and Rouge Bunny Rouge blushers. I guess this falls under the nice to have but not a must have category.

Ingredients:

I bought this from Harrods.com

Going Gluten free: The Beginning

I happened upon a article on the paiskincare blog talking about gluten and it sparked something off.
Although I know people who are gluten intolerant I assumed the symptoms were just of a digestive nature. The blog mentions that skin symptoms could be things like "redness, dryness, itching and rashes". After reading this I started doing some searches and a lot of people link a direct correlation to gluten in their diet to ill effects on their skin. A lot of the skin symptoms seem close to what I get, especially unexplained sensitivities.
Given that the skin cycle is meant to be 28 days I have decided to go gluten free for at least a month to see what, if any benefit it brings me.
So this is where it begins.
One thing I can say is that cutting out gluten in your diet is expensive, not only do the items cost that bit extra but I have made a lot of bad buys ( I have tried 5 different brands of bread in the run up to this test and all have been terrible).
From doing my searches quite a lot of people seemed to find a benefit with changing their skincare to gluten free as well so I followed suit and have changed completely over to the Pai range.
I have read a lot of positives from going gluten free; feeling more healthy, less tired, clearer skin and losing weight. I'll be back in about a months time to let you know how it goes.

All the items in the photos I bought myself.