Well I think there is no woman in the UK who would not have something from MAC. They are very successful cosmetics company and they have many  religious followers including me
Anyhow, today I wanted to review a couple of their products randomly picked in their store for experimenting. Although they are making a lot of products, which stand out from their competitors and even high end designer’s lines, there are a few products, in my opinion, which do not particularly live up to their thought task.

Their shadows are absolutely fantastic, there is nothing to say apart from I love them. They are easy to work with, they do not crumble and one can choose from the most sophisticated colours pallet. I usually buy their set of four, which works out cheaper so I can decide later which colours I like and if so I can invest in the larger size packaging. Colours I am using now are: A 38 wood winked; A28 Smut; A39 Coquette;  A27 Typographic; Ricepaper Frost; Copperplate Matte2; Naked Lunch. I love smokey eyes look and I variate a lot with these 7 shades.

also was bought powder blusher for my contouring “harmony matte” colour and I really like the effect of it see the picture below.

Another product which was acquired recently is “Line Filler Base Lissante”. I bought it predominantly because somehow, I guess due to the structure of my face or aging after several hours of wearing make up, the foundation sits in into small creases or wrinkles on under eyes skin. I have tried several products and while some where almost acceptable some totally useless I thought I give this one a go. Well, while it seemed to work well on my outer hand side it is very not working on the targeted area. Not only it is painful to blend it into skin, due to its dense texture and the under eyes very sensitive skin, but it also when gets mixed with foundation turns into clumpy, plaster-like substance…not a very appealing view. However I can imaging that it may work for nasolabial folds or forehead wrinkles, again not sure how it will work with the foundation!

Thanks for reading.

This a quick review for the Matte Morphose Foundation by L’Oreal. I am not a big fun of the matt foundations but I quite liked this one. It is very soft and silky and it did not crease too much under my eyes, what’s become a growing concern of mine recently. However a very rich moisturization required for a dry skin as my dry patches straight away stood out after application…anyway overall the product lives up to it’s price £7.99, well could be cheaper, since the ingredient list is very basic…. Well what’s inside? Not a very elaborate ingredient list and the main compound is a type of silicon used in many types of cosmetics (deodorants, hair sprays, sunblocks, hair conditioners…), hence a very silky and smooth texture plus couple of different types of pigment dyes to form the colour. Would recommend for an oily skin type. And since it is basically a coloured silicone it is quite good for filling in your lines, like in my case with under eyes small creases and you even can leave out the primer apart from a good moisturization.

What is more important than the state of your nails? Well nothing really, you could not be wearing your make up, or be dressed down very high street nonchalantly, but if you have to have immaculate nails. A simple gloss or nail strengthening polish will do. But you can go wild and express yourself in many different ways when it comes to nails. I remember having Dalmatian pattern resembling nails when I was a bit younger, well to be hounest quite a bit younger. Since then I got more mature and my nail polishing habit got a bit more conservative, but still I love vivid and deep colours mixed from now and then with a more pastel, quitter colours, like French manicure or simply one colour beige nail polish.

Well this post is predominantly about one brand and it’s OPI. I can’t get happier when I purchase another colour of them. I found it to be the best nail polish on the market yet, which does not have equal competitors. It’s very easy to apply, the brush is thick enough to cover the whole nail and only small correction is needed to finish the stroke. It holds reasonably long, when applied in two coats! Two coats are must, I am afraid, as one coat does not last at all and doesn’t have that deepness of colour. What a vats choice of colours and amazing design of the bottle. What a joy to have it on my dressing table. I found that if I buy it in Sally’s it’s at least £4 cheaper that in Selfridges, but they do not carry that range of colours of course….

Another brand, which I was so mad about until recently, is Estee Lauder and their not so huge choice, but very well designed colours and all that havoc around limited additions…which I have been chasing for a months…well I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with the product. It was indeed an amazing colour, which does not last no matter how many coats you apply.

On contrary was nicely surprised by a Polish brand recently, and I will be covering their products in more depth in my next posts, but for now as we speak about nail polish, they are definitely worth mentioning.  The brand is INGLOT. They also have an amazing choice of colours but the texture of the product is more fluid, hence making it a bit more difficult to work with and also much lighted when applied in one coat, therefore several coats are necessary. Holds nicely and cheaper of course. I buy them from Westfields in London.

That’s my nail polishing review, please let me know about nail polish which worked for you. Comment….comment….comment…..

I have been looking for that ultimate foundation for every occasion and have tried a handful of brands. I started with drugstore brands and progressed to designer and dedicated cosmetics brands.

I am very impressed with Revlon foundations but one has to be careful with choosing the right product depending on the skin type. Interestingly I have dry skin but somehow the dry skin formula was not my favourite at all. Somehow I found it to be too dry and difficult to work with and on contrary the one with the combination/oily skin was my favourite, however I had to wipe of the excess oil from my face. Very nice colours and very creamy texture makes it pleasant to wear.  But this was not my ultimate foundation yet…

Unfortunately non of the other drugstore brands could come even close to the Revlon hence I am not even mentioning them here. I had to move on to designer brands and dedicated make up and cosmetics brands to find out if I could find my ultimate product.

Of course first brand, which springs to your mind, is Mac, but there I could not find anything what could impress me. Nice colours and quality products, however too heavy coverage not something I could imaging wearing all day long. However I found a very nice contouring product, but it’s a different story…

My next brand was Bobby Brown I though well maybe this is it and tried a couple of their products, but somehow what was recommended by the sales person was not suitable at all for my needs and ending up in an awkward situation I decided to leave very quickly. By the way their very tinted moisturising balm, which is a combination of day cream and foundation, did not work at all. It did not cover my uneven tonality and accentuated my blemishes and not that I have a lot but it felt like…

Well this brought me to Chanel and I loved it! Amazing colours very creamy very fluid and make such a difference on your skin, covers all uneven skin tones and brings to your face, that so desired glow, which you will find in those magazine ads…(I tried Pro Lumiere Foundation) I absolutely loved it but it was not the end of my search…..

I went over to NARS stand and I think found my ultimate beauty the Sheer Glow Foundation. It is foundation and treatment in one, improving and brightening the skin Seer Glow works while wearing it and makes your skin looking amazing after it’s washed off…is not it fantastic! ….I absolutely love it makes the skin so even and not shiny at all (well it’s for dry and normal skin type only) Also I have noticed that it behaves very nicely in flash photography and there is no need to apply different product under your eyes, of course prior moisturising is a must.

Sorry Chanel I love you, but the pedestal is taken by NARS

At this moment this is my ultimate foundation and I will write an update once the situation has changed.

P.S.: In my search I came across an amazing compact powder by Illamasqua but I have so many compacts by other brands so I decided to rest my shopping mania for powders…plus I was so much impressed with NARS so I decided to end my search then. Also I have heard that Armani has quite sophisticated foundation, range which hounestly I have not tried yet. So your opinion on these or other brands not mentioned here will be very highly appreciated. Comment…comment…comment….

I would like to update this article since I have tried a couple of more products, well literally a couple.

My new trophy is Gosh’s “Lift me up” with Sepilift DPHP technology.  Sepilift DPHP is a mixture of Collagen-specific aminoacid and Palmitic acid.  Tests in vivo of the 1% product suggest wrinkle correction and moisture improvement by 18% against placebo tests. Unfortunately can’t yet contribute with such detailed review, however I liked it straight away after applying on my skin. It has interesting end result; my skin is very even, not dry or shiny, in fact the product contributes very even coverage remaining almost unnoticeable and feels very comfortable on my skin. Minus only five shades….

Another brand, which caught my eye was Clarins Teint Haute Tenue – Everlasting Foundation….The original design and a divine smell win over the browsing shopper. I liked how it looked on my skin, the tone was well selected by the assistant , but I find it too drying. It absorbs very quickly and I almost could feel the stringent  feeling on my face . Can’t of course argue , it well maybe suitable for some skin types,  but I opt out for a more moisturising solutions.

]]> http://emporiumcosmetics.com/2010/01/ultimate-foundation-serach/feed/ 0 http://emporiumcosmetics.com/2010/01/glamorous-cosmetics/ http://emporiumcosmetics.com/2010/01/glamorous-cosmetics/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:09:22 +0000 admin http://emporiumcosmetics.com/?p=181

With the Internet becoming more widely accessible so do the new on line thriving make up brands. Especially being based in the UK it proves to be very handy to be able to try those cosmetics, which are not available locally. I have many cosmetics brands on my list which I can buy only online. What also is a bit thrilling as I can brag about to my friends One of them is Glamorous Cosmetics Greece based gem. I am reviewing today a couple of their products kindly provided by the company. They have opened their doors first in 2005 in Greece Athens and have been expanding, conquering new continents and hearts. I have a couple of products from their main lines I wanted to share my opinion about them  with you. So what I have here are  – foundation, lip stick, mascara, nail polish and lip/eye pencil.

I shall start with my favourite product – which honestly quite surprised me – G by Glamorous Fluid Foundation. It is very light foundation, which surprisingly very hard to detect! on the skin. The result very even skin tone and even in a close up I can guarantee no one will be able to spot it! Due to its texture and very light coverage I think it will be a perfect foundation for a day time look. It contains talk so good moisturising regime is advisable. Packaging is very bag friendly being only 20ml, smaller than usual 30ml…very pretty and accurate not heavy at all, product’s live from opening is 18 months. For those who are madly scrutinising the ingredients list, well it contains conservants methylparaben and propylparaben, but what doesn’t nowadays…

Again very good ratings for lipstick. Creamy easy to apply and very long-lasting and you can control how vivid you want it to be. Many of the lip products available on the market are not long lasting enough or very sticky and last till the next bite…or other end of the stick they are so chemically enhanced that you can’t get rid of it … well with this one I can apply it in the morning and it will wear off at the end of the day. Impressed! I had very vivid dark red very in fashion now. Also I have checked the website and they carry quite a nice choice with very nice beige colours – m y favourits. Only draw back was that I was not entirely happy with the packaging I think the quality is very good and it should be reflected in a more sophisticated presentation….

I found that the mascara had quite a good performance, but I can’t elevate it above the other products found on the market. It  did not stick my eye lashes together, which is a big plus!! Very simple straight forward brush with dense bristles, which distributes the product evenly and reached out to every lash._____________________________________________________________

I guess the hardest to review is the nail polish. In general it’s combination of colour, how easy it’s applied and how long it’s lasting.  It did not chip off my nails for reasonably long time, the texture is very glossy and you can feel that it will hold for quite some time, no second coat is necessary unless you like that heavy look. However I was struggling with application… Very thin brush made it very difficult to apply the product evenly and I ended up with a streaky lines and uneven distribution  I have checked and on the website the company offers a wide range of fashionable colours though, which is a plus.

With eye and lip liners I find that it’s always down to the colour and softness of the product. The product must be soft but not sticky or clumpy. I think the product I have is very good for lip lining, but a bit too hard to be an eye liner, however really worked for my eye brows. Very handy packaging with the cute cap and sharpener in one.

Over all was very impressed with the foundation and lipstick and would recommend without any hesitation.

This is a very quick review for Barry M eye shadow dust. I have tried many shadows in my life and I have to say this one I find far the best one. Not only it has a vey very rich pigment it also has a very affordable price £4.50! My favourite so far.

Barry M Eye-Shadow Dazzle Dust

I have been testing lip plumpers over the past couple of weeks and I would like to share my experience with you.

First of all here are the products:

* Plump Lips by Freeze 24/7
* Instant Lip Plumper by City Lips
* Blow Lip Pluper by Urban Decay
* The Temps by MD Formulation
* LipFusionXL
* Lip Inflation by Sally Hansen
* Lip Injection by Too Faced

While I think that all of the products are good in their ways there are a couple which I think I have achieved a better result with.

Ok here is my report:

* I very much like the colour of my Freeze 24/7 lip plumper – first frost. When I apply it onto my lips it makes them redden a bit and covers with a very nice pinkish colour with a mother of pearl effect. It makes my lips tingle a bit but I cannot report a difference between before and after state of my lips the only way it might visually enlarge lips it is redefining the contours. However nice colour and I use it quite frequently. Rating 6/10
* Urban Decay again a very slight difference if any at all. It numbs my lips and only hydrates them resembling a very good lip balm. Colourless. Rating 5/10
* MD formulation – The Temps – again another good balm in my opinion. They claim that it flattens out the wrinkles that run up the nose but cannot review this feature and will probably give it to my mum for further investigation. Rating 5/10
* Sally Hansen very cooling lip gloss in my opinion; did not do anything to my lips….not very expensive if one wants a rich lip gloss. Rating 3/10
* City Lips really loved it inflates my lips makes them pout, very gentle. The product contains collagen spheres and a hyaluronic acid which penetrate the lips and co-join with water molecules resulting a nice fuller look. I think because of this the effect is quite long lasting and when I try to reapply it within a short period of time I do not fel any difference but if I leave it for about a day it works again. But this is only my theory… Rating 9/10
* Lip Injection I am very happy with the results I am getting from this product, in fact I am most happy about this product than any other. It inflates my lips more than anything else I tried as far. But it has down sides as well. firstly it does not last long, maximum of 40 minutes secondly it works in an old way it actually by stinging your lips with (unfortunately not clear on the packaging but i think that it may contain one of the oils like chili or cinnamon or combination, not sure though) it rashes the blood flow  to your lips. But I absolutely love the effect! And I am cheating a bit by applying one of the either CityLips or LipFusion that the molecules can bond with water and than apply the Lip Injection on top. But be warned it can irritate your lips and may even hurt them a bit so do not do it often!!! As the Lip Injection in itself is quite a strong irritant and if you miss and apply it over the lip line it will redden the skin as well. Rating 9.5/10 (only because it inflates my lips more than anything else, not very lasting though!!!)
* LipFusionXL is another very good product which I really like very much. It is very difficult to say which one works better for me. I think because both products LipFusion XL asn CityLips work by the same mechanism it is very difficult to elevate the best, therefore they both have the same rating in my review.  I am slightly confused by that fact that these two products seem not two work two consecutive days. I actually have to rest them for minimum a day before applying again. But at the same time the seem to last much longer than products which have a “sting mechanism” Rating 9/10
* I recently bought YSX Ultimate Pout Gel treatment which claim that it enhances the appearance of the lips by 40 percent provided that you apply it three time a day during about one month. So I will come back to you with my result. But for now I am still in a search for that ultimate lip plumper that will turn me off injecting my lips with something more serious .

On the picture you can see that right side is fuller on which I have applied City Lips

Let me know your experience and which lip plumper worked for you best. Thanks for reading.