LIPSTICK WARDROBE: 05/11

23/05/2011

Get bronzed, honey!

As some of you may already know, the Body Shop has launched a new makeup collection for Summer 2011 entitled "Honey Bronze";

all products contain Community Fair Trade honey and promise to give you that healthy bronzed glow we're all after when the weather gets warm!
Nah, who am I kidding; all-year-round bronzed complexion is what we're really after.

I gotta say, the promo pics got me going...
If I run even the fairest chance to look like the girl above by using this makeup range, I ought to give it a go!

The Body Shop honey Bronze summer 2011

The Honey Bronze collection consists of:

a shimmering dry oil (knock-off for the Nuxe best-seller),
2 shades of the reformulated Brilliance Powder with the integrated brush,
a bronzing gel/stain,
2 lipglosses- a shimmering sand colour and a gorgeous coral shade...

...and what I believe is the star product of the range:

The bronzing powder compact!
Which is 100% matte, has a faint smell of honey and comes in 4 shades-
so that you're bound to find a match for your skintone ;)

I've already read so many positive reviews on blogs about this product, so I went to the Body Shop to have a peek. The packaging looked so gorgeous, as well as the cute honeycomb imprint! But the colours were so... blah.

Nevertheless, I decided to purchase it and see for myself if it lives up to the hype. The sales assistant matched me to shade #02.

I returned home, wore it on my cheeks and OMG...
That's Holy-Grail material!!!

Chanel Bronze Universel on the left, TBS Bronzing Powder in #02 on the right

As you can see by the swatch, it's a fairly light golden bronzey colour that looks very close to Bronze Universel by Chanel- which I absolutely adore! So, to have a powder version of Bronze Universel is all the better for me!

Colour aside, the compact is slim and stylish, perfect to throw in my handbag to touch up throughout the day. The powder inside is hardly pressed, which eliminates fallout but requires a rather stiffer brush to pick up the product. Other than that, it's extremely blendable which makes it
fool-proof to bronzing amateurs like myself!

This is a video with Karim Sattar (I love this man!) using all products of the Honey Bronze range; at 2.24, he explains the four shades of the bronzing powder:
#01 is suitable for cool skintones,
#02 works on warm/yellow skintones (like mine),
#03 is a neutral shade and
#04 is the darkest colour used for contouring.

Ah, it's been a long, long time since I was THAT impressed with a product by TBS, soon after purchase!

So, what do you girls think of the Honey Bronze range?
Will you be purchasing any of the products?
Me, I have new lemmings for the Dry oil, thanks stella ;)

CBSG5861

18/05/2011

Chanel Bronze Universel/ Soleil Tan de Chanel; first impressions

So I've succumbed to the ever-so-growing Chanel Bronze Universel craze,
and I'm over the moon about it!

These are my first thoughts on the product:

* First off, let me protest about its humungous packaging! Despite being uber stylish and minimalist-chic, it can take too much space when travelling! I understand that the Chanel woman doesn't need to save up room on her travel makeup bag- she has her man to carry her numerous luggage, ha ha! Still, it would be so nice if there was a mini version of Bronze Universel...

* Its renowned smell: it's a subtle grown-up version of peach, not the sickly sweet peachiness you usually come across in most teenage-targeted fragrances of today! I can already see myself getting addicted to it... I'm sniffing the tub while I'm typing this and ahhh... it smells just divine!

* This stuff is packed with silicones- and I'm not accounting that as a con, I think products containing silicones are a pleasure to use, as they glide on the skin so beautifully! This could be one of the reasons why Bronze Universel is so popular...

* It's mentioned on makeupalley that it also provides some kind of coverage, which I find quite interesting ;)

* I've also been reading that it's a great "value for money" product, as you get 30 gr for a reasonable price-per-gr ratio. Well, that must be true only if you use piles of bronzer every single day! I wonder if it goes bad; the tub writes 18M (period after opening), so am I going to expect it going off after 1,5 year?

* For your reference girls, the greek stores won't offer the most common 25% sale on Chanel products! I got mine for around 45E from a very sweet and polite sales assistant (now that's odd! for a Chanel lady, ha ha) at my local Hondos Center. Although she didn't give me any Chanel samples (booooo!!!) and I was too shy to ask for a couple of Vitalumiere Aqua sachets...

And now that my "don't touch it!" phase has finally receded,
I can start using it! lol

I'd love to read your recommendations on the best brush to use with
Bronze Universel-
I know the Mac 109 is a popular choice but it allegedly sheds like crazy, and any hair stuck in the product would make me cringe!

So, what are your thoughts on high-end makeup?
Do you feel like investing in one expensive product is better than owning
lots of cheaper alternatives?
I haven't yet made up my mind about that matter...

CBSG5861

13/05/2011

Blogging made me do it!

And what I mean by the above statement is that blogging initiated me into a whole new world of word-of-mouth HG makeup products, which the editors of the greek women's magazines weren't so foresighted to integrate in their beauty columns...

Or in other words:
I've been naughty again and my wallet hurts!

First it was Mac...

And I'm glad I caved in, since the quality of the Mac lipsticks is unbeatable!

Then I had an pocket-friendly lapse into Elf products...

Can't wait for my second order to arrive!

And finally last week, it was time for some Chanel...

Oh, I blame the Pixiwoo sisters!
The 100% rave reviews on Blogger!
...The bad weather, ha ha!

Has blogging made you rush out and buy those over-hyped makeup products that you wouldn't purchase otherwise?
Let me know, loves ;)

CBSG5861

10/05/2011

Korres Wild Rose concealer review

Apart from the Korres lip balms that I love and use daily, I consider myself a Korres makeup virgin ;)
Odd I know, since I shop most of my skincare products from Korres...

So as I was running low on my favourite Lightening Touch from TBS (aka YSL Touche Eclat dupe), I thought "what the heck, I'll go for the Korres equivalent this time".

Korres Wild Rose concealer- 4 shades available; aprox. 13E

To tell you the truth, I'm a little dissapointed in this product :(

The thing is, I made a mistake by thinking that the built-in brush packaging would necessarily mean the product can be used like Touche Eclat, which is a light to medium coverage concealer to highlight facial features and under the eye area.

I was terribly wrong, this stuff is heavy duty-
which works perfectly fine for my acne scars, but under the eyes-
oh goodness, what a horrible mess!

Picture it:
as the product dries relatively fast, the pigments settle on "areas" under the eyes, making it impossible to blend the concealer to an even finish...
Which results to a blotchy, yucky under eye area and my dark circles accentuated even more :(

Oh, did I mention it only contains 1.5 ml of product?
Yeah, not exactly a value-for-money product...

Still, it's quite efficient at covering my acne scars-
so I'm going to use this sucker up (it must contain up to a month's supply) and then I'm off to something else...

There you go, my two cents on the Korres Wild Rose concealer ;)

Are you fans of highlighting concealers like Touche Eclat?
Any favourites you'd like to share?

CBSG5861

07/05/2011

Korres for less! Have a looksie ;)

This is a bargain-alert, people!
Feel free to share the good news ;)

During the Easter holidays, I made an order on pharmacy4u.gr-
to those of you who haven't heard of this site before, it is a greek online store where you can find any product (non-prescripted) that is sold at pharmacies; it provides you with lots of pharmaceutical cosmetic brands like Vichy and Avene- and of course, Korres.

Let me tell you this: the prices are out of this world!
To give you an example:

Wild rose moisturiser- 12.63E

Lip butter- 4.65E

Cherry lip gloss- 6.98E

Sunflower eyeshadow- 7.76E

Monoi Bronzing powder- 14.36E

Shipping costs for Greece is 3E on orders under 49E-
if you go past that limit, shipping is free!!!
International shipping is 9.99E on every order, taxes included.

Among the others things we ordered, I got this shower gel for 5.43E...
Can you believe it?

However, I have to point out that it took more than a week for the package to arrive- which is relatively late for a greek online store shipping locally;
what's more, a couple of Korres products I ordered were missing- apparently they were out of stock, but I would appreciate it if there was a notice beforehand for that matter.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend pharmacy4u.gr just for their ridiculously low prices;
from now on my contact lens solution, diet supplements and Korres goodies are all going to be purchased from this e-shop!

What's your experience on shopping online for cosmetics?

Ps: no one payed me to write this post nor I was compensated by pharmacy4u.gr with products. My honest opinions, as always ;)

CBSG5861

05/05/2011

Mac Pro eye makeup remover review

I'll be blunt on this review:

This products is great.

Eyeshadows? All gone with a swipe!
Mascara? After you've soaked a cotton pad with this solution and let it sit on your lashes for a while, 90% of all mascara is gone- which is a pretty good job for an oil-free eye makeup remover!

I also love that it doesn't contain glycerine-
instead, it lists Cucumis Sativus (cucumber extract) in its short ingredients lists, much like Fix+.
Full ingredients: water, Peg-32, butylene glycol, disodium cocoamphodiacetate, Peg-6, Cucumis Sativus, trisodium edta, phenoxyethanol

The hole in the bottle's opening ensures that the product comes out in droplets.
No oily residue, as well ;)

In fact, the Mac Pro eye makeup remover belongs among the best
water-based eye makeup removers in the market, IMO.

But, here's the problem:

As I'm very diligent at removing my eye makeup, I ended up using a lot of product each time- thus I went through the whole bottle in a month!
It costs 19E for 100 ml of product (14,50E with the 25% sale, he he),
which I find a lot to spend on an eye makeup remover.

To conclude, I'd buy this product again and again every month,
if I could afford it;
currently, I'd much rather spend my money on a nice lipstick!

Impassioned, you'll be mine this summer!!!

So now I might go back to my trusty Yves Rocher gel cleanser, as I find the gel formulas to be the most efficient in getting rid of ALL mascara traces...

Still, I'm curious to try out the Mac dual-phased remover in the red bottle-
heck, at least it's eligible for back-to-Mac!

What is your favoutite eye makeup remover?
Do share!

CBSG5861

03/05/2011

April favourites!

Hey loves!

Another "monthly favourites" post for you today-
the products mentioned below were also the main features of my holiday makeup bag, as well:

TBS Moisture foundation: this may not be the best-ever foundation I've tried so far, but it's heaps better from the previous used Oil-free version; review coming soon ;)

TBS Shimmer Cubes: when it comes to my travel makeup bag, I always include a neat&cute eyeshadow palette; apart from the top left honey gold colour, I made good use of the rest of the shades during Easter.

Seventeen nail polish in 219: as I haven't yet experimented with the season't hot pastel nail colours, this coral shade served me great to transition my manicure from dark wintery reds and browns to spring's brights.

Mac Hue lipstick: what I like the most about this lipstick is its buildable coverage- during daytime, I can wear it as a soft wash or I can layer it on evenings for a glossy nude mouth! An essential product when I'm travelling.

Korres Jasmine lip butter: I so love the soft nude effect it gives on the lips, but I still can't get over the plastic pot container! If you ever see a girl on the streets using a hand sanitiser before applying this lip balm, that's probably me...

I was also going to include this old plum blush from Biotherm- but no, the clumsy little me had to drop it on the floor and ruin it completely...
Took me two days to get over it!

What were your most used products during April?

CBSG5861