 Shoeperwoman |
 Dollface |
 Fashion Police |
 Follow Us |
 Become a Fan |
 Subscribe |
 Follow |
 Subscribe Via Email |
Monthly Archives: March 2010
Dollface Reviews Invisalign Clear Braces: Part 3, the first brace
Yesterday I finally got to start my journey towards straighter teeth for real, when I picked up the very first of the Invisalign clear braces I’ll be wearing for the next six or seven months!
I was feeling both excited and a bit daunted as I drove to the appointment. On the one hand, this is something I’ve wanted to do for years, so finally getting started was a great thing for me. On the other hand, Invisalign does represent a big commitment on my part, both financially and in terms of the lifestyle changes I’ll have to make to adapt to it, and although I’d spent hours reading other people’s experiences, you never really know what it’s going to be like for you until you actually try it.
So far, though, I’m pleased to report that that I’ve been really impressed with the aligner. First of all, it really is invisible – or almost invisible, anyway. Mr Dollface didn’t actually believe I was wearing it when I came back from my appointment, and has to look really closely to be able to see it even now. I’ve also had no problem speaking normally with it in, which is a relief, because some people find they lisp a little for the first couple of days of each new tray. (With that said, I currently only have a brace for my lower teeth only. I’ll be getting one for my top teeth at my next appointment, and I have a feeling that may be a little harder to adapt to, especially given that I’ll be wearing two at that point!
Dollface Reviews: Liz Earle Superbalm
This was one of the products Liz Earle sent me to try out last month, and in a short period of time, it’s already become my go-to product for “dry skin” emergencies. It’s called “Superbalm“, and as that name suggests, it’s a balm for, well, just about everything. You can use it on your lips, on your hands, elbows, heels: you name it. You can even apparently use it on your hair, but I’ve yet to try that, being wary of putting anything sticky near my head!
As for where I HAVE been using it, I’ve been sticking mostly to my lips and cuticles, both of which tend to get very dry. As you’d expect from Liz Earle, this is made from all-natural ingredients, and includes things like beeswax, avocado oil, lavender, shea butter, echinacea and rosehip oil to gently moisturise the skin. It has a thick, waxy texture, with lots of larger particles through it which make it a great exfoliator, especially on the lips. The scent is very strong, and faintly medicinal, although I’m notoriously bad at placing scents, so that could just be me!
For me, the fact that this feels like a scrub as well as a balm is what sets it apart from other similar products (think Vaseline, 8 Hour Cream, etc): it’s great at sloughing the dead skin off the lips, before giving them a heavy dose of moisture, and my lips always feel softer after just one application of this. It also makes it idea for rough skin on areas like the elbows and heels.
I have the 30g jar, which is fairly expensive at £15. Happily, though, there’s also a 5g version which is just £4.50, making it the perfect way to try the product out. Because I mainly use this on smaller area like the lips and cuticles, when I run out (which I’d imagine will tale a long time – this is a “Little goes a long way” product!) this is the version I’d go for.
If you want to try it out, both sizes are available from the Liz Earle website.
Friday Face: High End Heroes
For my last Friday Face post, I did an all-budget look, using products which all came from the supermarket or chemist/drugstore. This week, I thought I’d go the other way, and do a high-end face, using some not-so budget products! I call these my “High End Heroes”, because while I’m willing to experiment with budget products and try out anything and everything, I can’t afford to do that with their pricier counterparts so these products are the ones I love to death and (with a couple of exceptions) always re-purchase when they run out. The products are:
1. Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer
2. Ilamasqua Ric Liquid Foundation in RF120
I hardly ever use this now: the coverage is fantastic, but the colour is just too yellowy for me, and although I can dial it down with the pure white shade I also bought, it’s just too fiddly to do every day, and I’m prone to adding too much white and looking like a vampire. More like a vampire, I mean. If I could find a better colour match, though, I’d definitely buy it again.
3. & 4 Bobbi Brown Under Eye Corrector and Creamy Concealer Kit in Porcelain Bisque and Porcelain
5. Benefit ‘Georgia’ face powder/luminizer
7. Urban Decay Eye Shadow Primer Potion
8. Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in ‘Copper Diamond’
9. Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eyeliner Pencil in ‘Nero’
10. Urban Decay 24/7 Concealer
11. Lancome L’Extreme Waterproof Mascara
Dollface Reviews: Maybelline Super Stay Color 18-Hour Lipstick
For the last few weeks, I’ve been desperately wanting to find a really good long-lasting lipstick. When you have lips as pale as mine (Without a touch of colour on my lips, I look like I’ve been recently exhumed, and I’ve lost count of the times I’ve got out for the day/evening looking fairly presentable, only to go to the bathroom halfway through my first drink and discover that all of the colour is gone, and I’m once again doing a great impression of the Living Dead) normal lipsticks just don’t cut it, and while I’ve been wearing my Revlon ColorStay a lot in recent months, I’m getting a little tired of the colours, and wanted to try something new. Also, repeated use of the Revlon products does tend to leave my lips feeling very dry (a side-effect of most long-lasting lipsticks I’ve tried), so the hunt was on for something that would stay put for hours, suit my colouring AND be comfortable to wear.
Luckily, I didn’t have to look too long to find something that at least claimed to do all of this and more. I was en-route to the supermarket on Monday when I noticed a billboard advertising Maybelline Super-Stay Color,which now claims to last for 18 hours, rather than the previous 16. “Eighteen hours?!” I thought. “We’ll see about that!”
Fortunately, the supermarket I was headed to has a Maybelline stand, so I didn’t have to wait long to put my plan into action, either. I swung by the stand, and after a large amount of indecision, settled on shade 510 – Red Passion:
Dollface Reviews: Aveeno Moisturising Creamy Oil
I was sent this product a couple of weeks ago, and while I’ve been really enjoying using it on my legs, I must admit, I’ve been using it fairly often on my hands, too. Why? Well, in addition to being non-greasy, meaning I can put it on and then get back to typing almost right away, it also smells almost exactly like marzipan to me. I know that may be off-putting to those of you who don’t like scented products, but I love them, and this one smells… well, delicious, really.
Happily, it’s also a very good moisturiser. The tag line on the bottle says “Moisturises like an oil, absorbs like a cream,” and I’d say that’s a fairly accurate assessment. One of my favourite body moisturisers, for instance, is Johnstone’s Baby Oil, but it’s so um, oily, I tend not to use it very often. This product, on the other hand, isn’t greasy at all, but it does contain sweet almond oil, which makes it nicely moisturising.
Aveeno’s Moisturising Creamy Oil is available from Boots and Superdrug, but doesn’t appear on either website yet, so if you’d like to try it, keep and eye out for it next time your in-store.
Guerlain Jeu D’Ombrelles Eyeshadow Palette
This is another beauty product that falls into the “much too pretty to actually use” files for me. I mean, look at it! Wouldn’t it be a shame to mess up all those pretty patterns by actually swiping a brush over them? I think so, which is why if I bought this, I’d probably just take it out to admire it every so often, rather than actually using it.
If you think you could bring yourself to spoil its beauty, it’s Guerlian’s Jeu D’Ombrelles Eyeshadow Palette, and the pink and white colours are inspired by the play of sunshine on a lake, while the purple and pink ones are supposed to call to mind oriental flowers in a garden at dusk. Or, for the more pragmatic among you, it’s purple, pink and white eyeshadow.
If you want to buy it this is $59 and you can get it at Neiman Marcus, among other places.
Miss Budd London handmade satin shoes print cosmetics bag
Shoes and makeup!
Shoe-lover that I am, this little makeup bag could almost have been made for me! Cute shoes, my favourite, polka-dot print and enough space to carry all of my favourite cosmetics, too: it’s retail heaven!
This is £25 and is available from ASOS.com.
Dollface Reviews Invisalign Clear Braces: Part 2 – The Fitting
My journey towards (hopefully) perfect teeth moved on a stage this month, when I had my fitting for my first set of Invisalign braces.
The appointment lasted about forty minutes, and after an examination of my teeth and some scraping to remove a bit of tartar build-up, the dentist took some x-rays of my teeth and jaw to allow him to look at how long the roots of my teeth are, and see if there were any problems which might prevent me having braces.
Luckily everything looked good (well, as good as wonky teeth can look, I guess), so we moved onto the next stage: taking impressions for the braces. I’ve actually been through something like this before, when I had my teeth whitened, and had impressions taken for the trays I used, but I’d forgotten how unpleasant it is for those with an easily-triggered gag reflex. Like me, for instance.
Although I’m only having a brace on my lower teeth (for now), I had to have impressions taken of both the top and bottom sets, so that the Invisalign lab who make up the braces can look at the bite. This involved the insertion of huge trays filled with a putty-like substance into my mouth: luckily each tray was only there for a couple of minutes at most, but I spent that time convinced I was going to gag. Hopefully it’ll all be worth it in the end.
After that, the dentist went over exactly what will be happening next, and I had some time to ask questions. The good news is that I’ll only need to wear the brace for around six months, which is less time than I’d been expecting. Having looked at the x-rays and done a more detailed examination of my teeth, my dentist also thinks Invisalign may be able to close a gap I have in my top teeth, which has bothered me all my life. Time to get saving, I guess!
I’ll have my first brace by the end of the month. Hopefully I’ll have my straight teeth six months later!
Dollface Reviews: Jelly Pong Pong Lip Orchid Lip Balms in Petal Pink and Bouquet
More pretty packaging from Jelly Pong Pong - a brand name guaranteed to make Mr Dollface laugh every single time I say it!
These two little ‘Lip Orchid’ balms come as part of a set, and although they were sent to me last month, it’s taken me a while to get round to trying them out properly, mostly because I’ve been spending my time just sniffing them. These are seriously some of the nicest smelling products I’ve tried in a long time – as the name would suggest, they both have a very floral scent, which I really like. Take a look under the jump to see some colour swatches, and what these look like on…
Runway Beauty: Dior Fall/Winter 2010
I love Dior: if nothing else, the runway show is always a true spectacle, and this one was no exception. While the big hair may not be the most wearable of looks on a day-to-day basis, I think it looks fantastic on the runway, and I love the herringbone plaits, too. Dark lips and flawless skin complete this look: take a look under the jump for some more images…
