Beauty
Read this page for the latest news on beauty products and our favourite brands.
We would love to hear about your favourite products, so feel free to leave a comment or submit a review!
Recent Posts on Beauty
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Rave Beauty Product of the Week
November 25th, 2011
Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation: proof that you don’t have to pay a fortune for flawless foundation. Take it from a foundation junkie: – I have a lot of foundations in my collection – this product is fantastic. A variation of the brand’s existing Healthy Mix Foundation, this formulation is better suited to my dry [...]
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Ready For Your Close-up?
November 14th, 2011
Look out for a special value kit featuring Smashbox products, courtesy of QVC UK. Set for broadcast on Friday 18 November 2011 at 12am, 1am, 9am, 12pm, 4pm and 8pm, the kit will include: Brow Tech To Go, a double-ended component with an angled waterproof pencil to fill and define brows. This product also features [...]
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Nails Inc Glamour Giveaway!
November 10th, 2011
With the December 2011 issue of Glamour Magazine comes a viagra nail polish, courtesy of the divine Nails Inc. Choose from 4 beautiful shades: Victoria (dark cherry red) Piccadilly Circus (dark pink cerise) Tate (rich warm red) Basil Street (pale soft toffee) Or, if deciding between the 4 is too difficult for you, do as [...]
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The Clarisonic Diaries
November 8th, 2011
Having followed the rave reviews on Clarisonic cleansing tools over the last couple of years, I finally caved and ordered one. Five frantic phone calls to Fedex later, in which I demanded a live update on the whereabouts of the package containing my Clarisonic Mia, it finally arrived. After an agonisingly impatient wait of 24 [...]
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How to Mend Broken Blushes and Eyeshadows
July 23rd, 2011
Don’t you just hate it when this happens? An old, favourite blush, rendered unusable The same thing happened to my SmashboxFusion Soft Lights in Baked Starlight. I was using it for the first time, when I dropped it in the sink: I hate wastage, and I was determined to find a way to use [...]
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BB Beautiful
April 13th, 2011
When I heard about a new skincare/makeup product recently, I just had to try it: BB Cream. BB stands for blemish balm. Originally formulated in Germany to provide facial protection and coverage for patients recovering from laser treatment, BB creams have become hugely popular in Korea, as well as other parts of Asia. [...]
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Coco Beau
March 16th, 2011
It is always a pleasure to discover a new beauty retailer. I am excited about my latest find because this website sells brands that are less well-known, have cult status, and are harder to find in the UK. On top of this, the staff is super-friendly and helpful. I have twice emailed them to ask [...]
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Tempted by Temptalia
March 9th, 2011
I am so excited by this fantastic beauty site I have recently discovered. Like many other websites dedicated to beauty, it features product reviews, swatches, and tutorials. But what makes this website special are 2 fantastic features: The Foundation Matrix This amazing feature enables you to enter details of your complexion, and look through [...]
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Laying Down the Foundations for Great-Looking Skin
March 7th, 2011
A good foundation should even out your skin tone and enhance the luminosity of your skin. It should look like good skin, rather than good makeup. My usually dry skin has been extra-dry through a particularly harsh winter. Now that we are moving into spring, I am fending off an attack of eczema which [...]
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That’s Right Up My Alley!
February 22nd, 2011
A favourite website of mine is Makeup Alley. I never buy a new product without having checked out the reviews and ratings left by this online community’s thousands of members. Members create their profiles (choosing whether or not to reveal or conceal their true identity, including details of their colouring, skin type and age, which [...]
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Japanese Joy
December 6th, 2010
I am unbelievably excited about my latest discovery, a website which sells Japanese skincare and make-up products. Based in Japan, this amazing site sells hundreds of Japanese products. Some, such as Shiseido and DHC, may be familiar; many are not on sale in the UK. Shu Uemura and RMK are sadly missing from the line-up, [...]
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Crown Brushes Part 2
November 29th, 2010
I have been asked about the fantastic brushes I ordered last week from Crown Brushes. They really are fantastic, and I am posting some pictures, to show you how they compare to other, more expensively-branded brushes. These are the brushes I bought: C141 Small Chisel Blush S250-1 Taklon Detail IB111 Round Angle Stippler Blender BK30 [...]
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Crown Brushes
November 25th, 2010
How did I not know about Crown brushes before? Crown Brushes are the manufacturers of several rangs of makeup brushes for other high-profile brands. They also sell the brushes under their own name, for a fraction of the cost. Ranges vary from mineral brushes and synthetic brushes to a luxurious line of Italian badger hair [...]
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Antioxidants and Free Radicals
November 16th, 2010
In the first part of the series on antioxidants and free radicals, I am going to explain what these terms mean, and how they affect your skin. Over the coming weeks, I will be looking at some of the nutrients you should be eating if you wish to help to improve the condition of your [...]
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How to Have Beautiful Skin
November 15th, 2010
There are 3 very important steps you should be taking daily, in order to look after your skin: Use a Sunscreen The sun’s rays can be very damaging. Even if you live in a colder climate, you are exposed to harsh UVA rays, and need protection against them. You should be using a sunscreen every [...]
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Let’s Go Shopping!
November 5th, 2010
I have ordered quite a few new beauty products recently, and am always on the lookout for a bargain. Here are some of the sites I have used recently to buy skincare products and make-up. As you will notice from the length of the list, it has been an expensive month! Websites are listed in [...]
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Pick a Palette
October 27th, 2010
I am such a make-up junkie that I sometimes lose track of what make-up I have. Every once in a while I find a discarded, long-forgotten eyeshadow, sitting forlornly at the bottom of a make-up bag. Japonesque make-up palettes to the rescue! Whether you’re a professional make-up artist or just a product junkie, these handy [...]
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The 6 Steps of Skincare Revisited
October 26th, 2010
A few weeks ago, I shared with you some amazing tips for good skincare, written by French beauty blogger Sonia. I am so impressed with the results of this skincare regime that I am reiterating the principles here. They cannot be overstated, and the French certainly know what they’re talking about when it comes to [...]
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UNT
October 21st, 2010
Here’s a fantastic new discovery: UNT. What? UNT. UNT was founded based on the philosophy that skin care should not be a luxury, that all people deserve healthy and comfortable skin equally, and that every product should have a purpose for skin. Since its inception in 2004, UNT has persisted on developing only medical-grade skin [...]
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Glam Balm
October 19th, 2010
This Glam Balm from Rodial is an anti-ageing multi-purpose skin treatment for face, lips, neck and hands. It nourishes, refines wrinkles and plumps up collagen on skin and lips. Rodial Glam Balm can be used as an evening facial treatment – a thin layer plumps up and revives tired skin leaving it glowing. It can [...]
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Foundations of a Good Foundation
October 18th, 2010
If you’re buying a foundation, it can be difficult to choose the right colour. The lighting in make-up halls tends to be harsh and unforgiving, and if you’re not careful, you can end up buying a colour that may look right under the artificial lights, but once back in daylight turns out to be entirely [...]
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Menard
October 17th, 2010
As part of my quest to bring you information about excellent skincare brands, and especially in light of my adoration of French skincare products in particular, let me introduce you to Menard. With retail outlets in France and Monte Carlo, products are also available directly from the website. As with many other French skincare brands, [...]
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Lucky Tiger
October 16th, 2010
If you’re a man – or buying a gift for a man – I totally rate the Lucky Tiger range. Available in the UK from HQ Hair, the range includes a face wash, face moisturiser, and, in my opinion, its star product: an after shave and face tonic, designed to soothe the most sensitive of [...]
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Oils That Nourish
October 13th, 2010
I recently wrote about a newly-discovered blog, Les Chroniques de Sonia. Sonia’s excellent skincare advice begins with the application of oil to the skin, to remove all traces of make-up and dirt. She recommends a fantastic range of vegetable oils, available from Aroma-Zone. At a mere €1.50 for each 10ml carton, you can buy a [...]
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Lovely Laura
October 5th, 2010
I have already devoted an entire post to my favourite Laura Mercier products, but such is my obsession with her flawless base products, that I have decided to revisit some of my favourite Laura Mercier products. Here are the edited highlights: Number one would still have to be her tinted moisturiser. After a year long [...]
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Evidens de Beauté
September 26th, 2010
The opening declaration on Evidens de Beauté’s website says it all: The perfect alliance of Japanese cosmesic excellence and French elegance. Designed for mature, sensitive skins, this luxe range doesn’t come cheap, but it does live up to its promises. I particularly love the serum. At a whopping €240 (gasp!), it comes in an elegant [...]
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How to Care for Your Skin, French-Style
September 22nd, 2010
I have always maintained that French women are way ahead of their counterparts on the other side of La Manche when it comes to skincare. I have been a huge fan of French skincare brand Institut Esthederm for nearly a decade, and I currently use Lait-Crême Concentré by Embryolisse, another French skincare brand. So I [...]
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Make-up Tutorial: Contouring
September 15th, 2010
A fantastic video tutorial on facial contouring by top make-up artist Lisa Eldridge:
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Plucked
September 14th, 2010
I have been obsessed with well-groomed eyebrows ever since I started plucking my own eyebrows at the age of 12. However, while I can recite an extensive wish list for every other beauty category, there is only one must-have brand of tweezer for me: Tweezerman. The product range, which extends to brow gels, brow scissors, [...]
[...] have had the wide grip slant tweezers for years, and love them so much I have devoted an entire post to them. The point tweezers are great for plucking fine and ingrowing hairs, while the wide grip makes them [...]