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Category Archives: Beauty Product Reviews
Clarins Ombre Minerale 4 Couleurs: Wet & Dry Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in 08 – Blue Sky
Last week I was thrilled to receive what I like to think of as a Dollface Care Pack – a selection of products from Clarins, which I’ve been having lots of fun trying out over the past few days!
Clarins has been one of my favourite skincare brands ever since my best friend introduced me to the brand when we were at university. I can’t afford to use the products all the time, but I do still return to it when I feel like indulging myself, and am never disappointed. For some reason, however, I hadn’t ever tried any of the makeup, so I instantly made a beeline for this mineral eye shadow quartet, which is called “Blue Sky”, but actually reminds me more of the sea, with its combination of green, blue and grey.
The packaging is almost as pretty as the colours themselves: these come in a satisfyingly heavy gold case, with a little gem clasp:
The four shadows all have a bit of shimmer to them, and can be used either dry, or applied with a damp brush, for a more intense colour. Although I’ve been wearing them dry on my eyes, the colours didn’t show up well on camera, so this swatch shows the “wet” version:
I really love these colours: as a pale-skinned redhead, I often find that the traditional “smoky eye” colours or black and silver are just too harsh for my complexion, and can leave me looking a bit more like one of The Undead than I normally do. When I do a smoky eye effect, then, I tend to go for either greens or browns, which are a little warmer, and look better with my skintone. The blue in this palette was a bit of a departure for me, and isn’t a colour I normally wear, but I applied it on the corner of the eye, with the sea green shade on the lid, the black in the corner and crease, and the white on the browbone, and really liked the effect: so much so that I’ve worn it a couple of times since I got it – quite unusual for me, because I normally just make do with eyeliner and mascara!
This palette is part of the Colour Breeze Spring collection, and there are seven other colour combinations to choose from:
L-R: Violet, Smokey Passion, Rosewood
L-R: Pastels, Nudes, Indigo
Graphites
Left to my own devices, I would actually have been most likely to pick the palette I was sent (good job, Clarins), but I also LOVE the ‘Pastels’ palette (I’m currently obsessed with pastels), and, surprisingly for me, the ‘Violet’, which contains four beautiful shades of purple.
Which would you choose?
Clarins Eye Quartet Mineral Palette, £30: click here to buy
Products for Pale Skin: NARS Illuminator in ‘Orgasm’
It happened again last week.
I was out visiting family, and a casual acquaintance of theirs – a woman I’ve only met a few times – suddenly zeroed in on my pasty complexion.
“Are you feeling OK?” she asked, cutting across the conversation we’d all been having to address me. “Because, it’s just, you’re SO PALE! You really look ill!”
Embarrassed, I explained (with the help of the other people present, bless them, who agreed that my complexion looked the same as it always does) that I was feeling perfectly OK, thanks, but, like many other redheads, I have very pale skin, and that this is how it looks.
My questioner was not to be appeased, though.
“You really don’t look well at all,” she told me. And then, addressing the room at large, “She’d look a lot better with some colour in her cheeks.” (I was wearing my usual makeup, including blusher) at the time. “I’d like her better with some colour.”
Now, as some of you know, I am not ashamed of my pale skin. I firmly believe that pale skin can be just as beautiful as any other shade, and I am not going to apologise for the face I was born with. Or, as Lady Gaga might say, “I was born this way, baby!”
But.
With all of that said, there’s no denying that I was stung by this woman’s comments, as I always am when someone tells me that my natural skin colour is unattractive or, in this case, makes me look “ill”. I don’t expect any healthy person enjoys being told that, do they? Because saying someone “looks ill” is just another way of saying they look BAD. Unless you know a person very well (or they’ve told you that they actually ARE ill), I think it’s one of those things that are best left unsaid. Never ask someone if they’re pregnant unless you can see the baby crowning, and never tell someone they look ill unless the ambulance is on the way, or you’re sitting by their bedside. Some free Dollface advice for you, there.
Over the next few days, then, I found myself looking at myself even more critically than I normally do, and I had to acknowledge that while I don’t think I looked ill, I am certainly much paler at this time of year than I am during summer, say. This is something that always happens to me in winter. I wear sunblock all year round, but in Spring and Summer I find that my freckles will darken just from being in the sun, which gives me the appearance of “having a bit more colour” as my new friend would say. By January, however, I haven’t seen the sun for such a long time that my freckles fade completely and my face becomes almost paper white (er, not exactly, obviously, but you know what I mean) without so much of a hint of natural colour.
When that happens, my usual makeup just doesn’t cut it any more, so I dug around in my beauty box, and I came up with this:
NARS Iluminator, in ‘Orgasm’. As you may remember, I received this as part of a complimentary Glossybox a while back. After my initial experiments with it, though, I found I didn’t use it much, because it wasn’t particularly visible on my skin. That was back in August, though, and I’d had three weeks in the California sun, plus the “best” of the UK summer. Now that I’ve tried it again on my much paler face, I have to retract my original comments on this. Yes, it’s still very subtle. No, it doesn’t create the kind of difference that makes you go OMGLOVE! But, having been wearing it all over my face (with the exception of my forehead, which really doesn’t need to look any shinier, thanks, and is mostly hidden by my fringe anyway), I find that it does take the edge of my pallor, and gives me a slightly healthier “glow”, as much as I hate that word.
I’ve moved this from “occasional use, only when I remember it” to “daily essential”. For now, at least. Next time I see that particular acquaintance, I may just let my pale flag fly!
Dollface Reviews: MAC Fluidline Gel Liner
As you can probably see from the state of the box, this little tub of MAC Fluidline Eye-Liner Gel has seen better days. That’s because I use it a lot.
This wasn’t always the case, though. You see, this is actually the very first gel eyeliner I’ve ever owned (I know, shocking), and I’ve only had it for a few weeks. In that time, however, I’ve become converted, and this conversion has come as something of a surprise to me, because I really didn’t expect it. I mean, I’d found my holy grail eyeliner pencil , I’d even found a budget version I loved: there was just no need for gel eyeliner in my beauty box.
Or so I thought.
I bought this tub of Fluidline on impulse a few weeks ago, when I was ordering some new brushes from MAC. (You know that thing where you think, “Oh, what the hell, I may as well just add something else to my basket, make the total up to a nice, round number?” That’s just me, isn’t it?) It comes in a little glass tub, and has a thick, creamy consistency:
You will need a brush to apply this, and there isn’t one supplied with it. I have an Anastasia one which came free with something years ago, but any angle brush should do the trick.
To apply, you simply press your brush into the pot:
And then use the brush to draw a line on the eyelid.
The reason I like this so much is that it creates a really smooth, thick line which is perfect for cat’s eyes and flicks. I only use it on the top lid – if I was doing a smoky eye, say, and wanted a more smudged effect I would go back to my trusty pencil, but this is the perfect product for precise application, and the kind of dramatic flicks I like. (I did take some photos of it on my actual eyes, but… I deleted them from the camera by mistake. Whoops. I will try to remember to take some more soon!)
This costs £13.50, but I know a lot of people swear by the Maybelline version, which is supposed to be almost identical – I’ll have to give that a try, too.
If you want to try this, meanwhile, you can click here to buy it at MAC.
‘Kitty’ false eyelashes by The Vintage Cosmetic Company
A few weeks ago, The Vintage Cosmetic Company very kindly sent me some of their false eyelashes to review. I’ve been really slow in getting round to trying them out, but I’m planning to road test some of the styles this month, and I’m starting off with the ‘Kitty’ lashes shown above which, like all of this brand’s products, come in a cute, vintage-themed package.
Here’s what they look like out of the box:
Very long, and very fluttery, and I must admit that when I first held them up against my lashes, I was a little alarmed, because these are longer than I normally wear, and I was a bit worried they’d be a little OTT. I needn’t have worried, though, because while they do deliver plenty of drama, they were actually more wearable than they expected:
These come in a range of different styles, and, as I said, I’ll be trying out some more of them soon: for now, you can click here for a list of stockists.
Dollface Reviews: Nicky Clarke NSS042 hair therapy straighteners
When it comes to hair, I’ve always been very much a “wash and go” kinda girl. I’ve never really had a lot of time for styling products or tools, so for most of my life, a hairdryer and brush have been more than enough for me.
For most of this year, however, my hair’s been going through one of those annoying “growing out a fringe” stages. Suddenly, washing and blow-drying just doesn’t cut it any more: that fringe just wants to stick up and out, in all directions, so over the past few months, I’ve found myself becoming increasingly obsessed with finding the best tools to keep it under control, and looking as good as it can under the circumstances.
Enter Nicky Clarke’s Hair Therapy Straighteners, which were sent to me by VoucherCodes.co.uk as part of their bid to find out if budget straighteners are a good investment compared to their more expensive counterparts.
Now, I’ve always used budget hair straighteners, mostly because I’ve never considered them enough of an “essential” to want to spend a lot of money on. That said, I don’t want to ruin my hair either, so I was pleased to find that although these are only £14.99, they come with a range of features including tourmaline coated plates and Far Infrared Rays to help lock in moisture and stop your hair getting frazzled by the heat, basically. They also come with these:
A brush, comb and banana clips, to help you achieve that “salon-straightened” effect: I love it when hair tools come with these little extras.
As for the straighteners themselves, they’re of the “no nonsense variety”:
Forget the snazzy colours and cute carrying cases: these are sleek and functional, with a grey and silver casing, which houses the plates themselves, with the power switch and temperature dial on the inside.
These have a top temperature of 230degrees, and there are four heat settings. Rather than giving the actual temperatures, however, these are labelled FINE, MEDIUM, THICK and MAX, so you know exactly which setting to use for each section of hair. I found this really useful, as it takes a lot of the guesswork out of using this styler. With my current straighteners, which give the exact temperature, I have a tendency to just ramp them up to the highest setting, and use that for everything, but with these ones I found I was more likely to adjust the temperature according to which section of hair I was working on: I found that the “fine” setting, for instance, was more than enough to straighten my growing-out fringe, while I needed the higher temperatures for the thicker sections at the side and back of the head.
These warmed up within a couple of minutes, and were as easy to use as any other straighteners. I experimented with straightening some sections of my hair and using them to put loose waves in other sections, and had no problems at all, and I did feel my hair looked shinier afterwards than it normally does with my regular straighteners, which have no “moisture-locking” properties!
My one criticism of these would be the placement of the temperature control and power switch:
It’s not in the most accessible position on the inside of the casing, and, being rather accident-prone, I was a bit worried that I’d end up burning my hand as I reached in to change the settings. I haven’t so far, thankfully, but I’d like these a little more with the dial on the outside, to minimise the chances of any accidents!
Overall, I was very happy with these, and while I don’t have a huge amount of experience of more expensive straighteners to compare them with (I do use the GHDs at the gym sometimes, but that’s pretty much it!), I found them perfectly suitable for my needs.
These are currently £14.99 at Comet, down from the original price of £39.99. Click here if you’d like to buy a set.
Dollface Reviews: Nanoblur Optical Cream
Nanoblur is possibly one of the most-hyped beauty products of the year so far: it’s one of those “quick fix” creams, which doesn’t offer long-lasting changes to your appearance, but DOES promise to make you look younger and better while you’re wearing it. In this case, Nanoblur claims to make you look “Up to ten years younger in 40 seconds or less.” Well, obviously I was going to have to try THAT…
Unlike many of the other products in this genre, Nanoblur is actually pretty cheap. It costs just £20 per tube (Mine was actually sent courtesy of price comparison website, Idealo.co.uk, which makes it even more tempting – and made me even more skeptical, I must admit. So, what is it?
This looks like skin cream, but is really a cosmetic product, which, according to the blurb, “Immediately reduces the appearance of skin ageing, including the look of lines, wrinkles, crow’s feet, sagginess and enlarged pores.” It comes in a white plastic tube, and looks much like any other cream:
There are a few different ways to use this, but the key to it is that it must always be the last step in your regime, so if you’re using it with makeup, you have to apply your makeup before using the Nanoblur. You can also use it on its own, however, and I decided to try that first, so I could give it a proper test.
Just like in the adverts I’ve seen for this, I decided to start off by applying the product to one side of my face only, so I could really see any difference it made. (No, I didn’t take photos of this: you have to be very unlucky to get to see me without my makeup!) I applied a thin layer over my skin, and waited for a few seconds to allow it to get to work.
Almost instantly, I felt a light tingling/tightening sensation on the surface of my skin, where I’d applied the cream. It’s not an unpleasant or painful sensation, and is much like the feeling you get with something like the Peter Thomas Roth Instant FirmX product I reviewed earlier this year. After about a minute, I looked in the mirror and…
…yes, there was a definite, visible difference between the side of the face I’d applied Nanoblur to, and the side I hadn’t. The main difference for me was that the Nanoblur side was now very, very matte. My skin has a tendency to shininess, and this product soaks up every last bit of it, so you’re left with a totally matte finish, which also has the effect of making my skin look paler and smoother. On the Nanoblur side, the pores were less visible, and the fine lines around the eyes were less pronounced, but not dramatically so.
Did I look ten years younger, though?
No, not really. Smoother and less shiny, yes, but not a whole ten years younger. Damn.
Having just told you that Nanoblur has to be used AFTER foundation, you can presumably guess what I did next. Yes, I tried to apply foundation over it. “Well, how hard can it be?” I thought. The answer? Very hard. Foundation just didn’t work over the top of it: unsurprisingly, given that the instructions specifically tell you not to do this. It won’t do you any harm, of course, it just goes on very patchy, and looks horrible, basically. I tried only in the name of research (I promise!), but didn’t repeat the experiment: instead, the next time I tried this, I used it OVER my foundation, as directed.
This attempt was a bit hit and miss. I find it quite difficult to apply the cream without it taking my foundation off, or making it look streaky, and when I do manage to get the application right, I have to use such a small amount of the product that I don’t really feel it makes a huge difference to my skin. That said, I don’t have a lot of deep lines yet, so I decided to take the test further, and took my trusty tube of Nanoblur to my mum, to let her have a go.
On my mum, the effect of this was much more apparent. As well as the mattifying effect I’d noticed, her frown lines looked softer (she also tried applying it to just one side of the face) and she really felt that it had made a difference. The difference it makes does seem to differ from person to person, however, because once my mum had tried it, Mr Dollface decided he had to have a go, too… On him, there wasn’t much difference to the frown lines, but we all noticed an improvement in the under-eye shadows and some of his other fine lines.
(Yeah, we have some fun times in our house, can you tell?)
Overall, I think this product DOES make a difference: just not a “ten years” younger, difference, although I do think there’s a knack to applying it properly, and I’m willing to admit that I may not just have found that knack yet! For me, I think the Peter Thomas Roth product I mentioned above has a much more obvious effect, and while it IS more expensive, it would still be my first choice above this: I think my best advice to anyone thinking of trying this would be to try to sample it first, so you can see exactly what kind of effect it will have on YOU, first. Oh, and be prepared to spend a little bit of time getting used to it: if you’re using it with makeup, it’s definitely not a “slap it on without even looking in the mirror” kind of thing!
This is available at Boots - or rather, is currently NOT available at Boots, because it’s been so popular that it keeps selling out. I got mine from Idealo.co.uk, which allows you to compare prices on lots of different products and then purchase direct from the retailer. You can check them out here.
Glossybox November 2011
Hey, Dollfaces!
I’m currently laid up with a heavy cold, so I hope you’ll forgive a very lazy post, the purpose of which is simply to show you the contents of this month’s Glossybox, which was a very welcome surprise yesterday afternoon. I will try to string together a coherent thought (or as coherent a thought as I ever manage, anyway) tomorrow, but for now we have, from left to right…
Philip Kingsley Elasticiser
A super-moisturising shampoo for all hair types. My hair has been thoroughly abused with the heated rollers and curling tongs lately, so hopefully this will help whip it back into some kind of shape.
ETRO set of five fragrance vials
I would tell you what these smell like, but I can’t actually smell ANYTHING right now. Woe is me!
DEAD SEA SPA MAGIK bath salts
Exactly what it sounds like.
NAIL ROCK Designer Nail Wraps
I’ve wanted to try nail wraps for ages, so I’m really keen to test these out. Mine are in a black and white stripe pattern, which is a bit of a departure for me, as I usually stick to bright red or neutrals when it comes to nails, but it should be fun to try something different.
ARBONNE FC5 Ultra Hydrating Hand Creme
I’ve had this sitting on my desk since it arrived, so I can remember to use it at regular intervals. Before my sense of smell deserted me completely, I was really enjoying the smell of this – hoping it will bring some life back to my dry cuticles, too!
Now, back to the Lemsip!
(Disclosure: this was a PR sample.)
Dollface Reviews: Swarzkopf Got2b Powderful Volumizing Styling Powder
This month, my ongoing quest for Big Hair led to to purchase a tub of Swarzkopf Got2b Powderful Volumizing Styling Powder. Two things about this:
1. The fact that they used numbers as letters in the product name hurts my heart a little.
2. I do no use styling products on my hair. Ever. Well, I mean, I’ll occasionally give it a blast of hairspray if I’m wearing it up, but only very occasionally, because I hate that “crunchy” feel it creates, and I have a habit of using too much and ending up looking like I’m wearing a hair helmet.
The fact is, most styling products don’t seem to make a whit of difference to my hair, other than in a negative sense: I have very greasy roots, and almost everything I try seems only to make them even more greasy. So, to say I wasn’t expecting much from this would be an understatement. In fact, if I remember rightly, I think I actually purchased it on eBay, because I was too cheap to pay full price for something I was sure I’d use once, hate, and then put in a drawer, never to be seen again.
But I was wrong.
Got2b Powderful is, as I’m sure you’ve guessed from the name, a powder which you apply to the roots of the hair in order to create volume. I was suspicious of this because I tend to be clumsy, and I imagined myself spilling it all over a black dress or something, and then walking around like Casper the Friendly Ghost all day. Or ending up with grey roots, because, me being me, I would be sure to use too much.
I needn’t have worried, though. (Or not about the grey roots, at least: I probably still SHOULD worry about the spillages…) This, you see, is a very finely milled powder:
The instructions advise you to tip a small quantity of it onto the palm of your hand, and then gently rub your hands together. (You can also simply tip it onto the roots of your hair, if you’re feeling adventurous…) When you do, it becomes invisible, as if by magic, (Note: no actual magic is used in this product. It does become undetectable on your skin, though.) and you can then rub it onto your roots without fear of it turning them grey. I generally tip my head upside down to do this, and try to distribute it as evenly as possible. Then I tip my head back up the right way…
Aaaand, just like that, my transformation into a crazy lady with hair in her eyes is complete! Just like I always wanted!
OK, I jest: I had literally just tipped my head upside down to show you, because that’s how far I’m prepared to go in my bid to bring you the truth about beauty products. Ahem.
Here’s how it looks with my hair NOT in my face, but still uncombed:
(No, I have no idea what was on the ceiling.)
(I did comb it afterwards, I promise.)
Now, I realise this doesn’t look like much to you with your normal, non-limp hair. But it does make quite a difference to my fine, poker-straight stuff, and I’m happy to report that it does it without creating a sticky, greasy mess at the roots. Yes, you can tell that there’s some product there when you touch it, but you can’t tell by looking at it, and I like it enough to have made it a permanent addition to my morning hair routine.
This is priced from around £2.99 and you can click here to buy it from Amazon.
Colour Depositing Conditioner for Red Hair: Superdrug Colour Effects Conditioning Colour in Warm Copper Gold
As regular readers may recall, ever since John Freida’s ‘Radiant Red’ Color Glaze was discontinued (pah!), I’ve been on what feels like a never-ending hunt for a colour-depositing conditioner for redheads.
Now, these aren’t easy to find, even if you’re blonde or brunette (although if you are, you’ll have a very slightly easier time of it). The makers of hair products, however, as I’ve noted before, generally like to pretend redheads just don’t exist at all, so it’s been a fruitless search. I thought it was over when I discovered Wella Lifetex Color Reflex Mask last year, but then… it was discontinued, too.
(Aside: I’m really starting to think it must be me: as soon as I find a product I love, it’s almost instantly discontinued. Hmmmmm.)
The loss of both of these products was a huge blow to me, because, for those of us who want to enhance our colour without resorting to chemical dyes (or even henna, which can be time-consuming and unpredictable), these conditioners are perfect: you use them in the shower, they don’t add a huge amount of time to your daily routine, and while they won’t cover greys or radically change your colour, they will give it a vibrant, more intense shade: or so I found, anyway.
I’d more or less given-up on finding a replacement for these two products, though. Anything I DID find seemed to be expensive, and not available in the UK, so other than a cursory glance at the shelves any time I happened to be in Boots or Superdrug, hoping against hope that the John Freida Color Glaze would have magically re-appeared, I’d almost forgotten about it. Then, a couple of weekends ago, I was in Superdrug, and I came across their Colour Effects Conditioning Colour.
This, as you can see from the image, bills itself as a “wash-in, wash-out” conditioning colour. It comes in a small bottle, containing just enough for three applications, and is just 99p: score! It works in much the same was as the other products I’ve mentioned here: you apply it to wet hair, as you would any other conditioner, leave it to soak in for around five minutes, then rinse it out. The resulting colour effect isn’t permanent: it will last for around 2 -3 washes, but as the product is cheap, and can be used in the shower as part of your normal routine, it’s easy enough to keep it going by just using it every few days. It’s NOT a dye: it won’t cover greys and it won’t change your colour by more than a shade or so, but it will revitalise dull hair, deepen your existing colour, and generally leave your hair looking a little more vibrant.
Well, so far, so good. There were about three different colour options available in the store: a blonde, a black (I think: I’m working from memory here because the product isn’t available online) and this “Warm Copper Gold”, which was the one I chose, because it looked more or less the same as my natural colour.
It actually took me a couple of days to get round to trying this, because, to be completely honest, I didn’t have very high hopes of it, purely because the colour described itself as “copper” rather than “red”. When I did, however, I was instantly converted: and instantly terrified that Superdrug would surely discontinue it at any second. I used the conditioner in the shower, and the first surprise came with the consistency of it: while this looks and feels exactly like any other conditioner (albeit a coppery brown one), it lathers up like a shampoo, which I wasn’t expecting. This does make it easy to distribute it evenly throughout the hair, though, so I left it for the recommended five minutes then rinsed until the water ran clear and headed off to dry my hair.
As soon as I removed my towel turban, I could see a difference in the colour: my hair was much more vibrant, and looked much “redder” to me, although in a natural kind of way: it’s basically my natural colour, just a little deeper. (Although I can see a big difference, no one else noticed!) Because I hadn’t actually been expecting to see any kind of difference, and my colour tends to look different every time I photograph it anyway, I didn’t bother to take a “before” shot, but here’s what it looked like after one application:
(It’s not actually a different colour on the bottom, by the way, it’s just the way it came out in the photo!)
There’s only one downside to this that I’ve found: it’s not great as a conditioner. While the other colour-depositing conditioners I’ve tried have left my hair very soft and shiny as well as subtly changing the colour, after using this, I didn’t really feel like I’d conditioned my hair at all, and the second time I used it, I used some of my regular conditioner afterwards, just to stop my hair from tangling up horribly. So while I love the colour effect, it’s definitely not a replacement for a regular conditioner: or not for me, anyway.
I liked this so much - especially given the 99p price tag – that when I couldn’t find it online I because paranoid that it had ALREADY been discontinued, and had to contact Superdrug to double-check. Happily, they replied to tell me that they have no plans to discontinue it, and while it isn’t on the website at the moment, it should be available in store. Phew!
Dollface Reviews: HD Brows eye and brow palette
This HD Brows Eye and Brow Palette came as part of the Glossybox I was sent last month, and although it’s taken me a while to get round to reviewing it, I’ve used it every single day since it arrived, which I guess tells you everything you need to know about how much I like it!
The palette was created by the company behind the HD Brows brow-shaping salon treatment, which is getting a lot of press attention at the moment (and which I’m desperate to try!). It contains two shadows, and two brow powders:
You can see the shadows, in “nude” and “carbon” at the top of the palette, while the powders are “warm brown” and “ash brown”, at the bottom. I initially assumed the “warm brown” shade would be the best match for me, but it’s actually the “ash brown” I’ve been using – it’s a little more of a “taupe”, while the other shade is slightly redder.
Here are all of the shades swatched on my arm:
L-R: Ash Brown, Warm Brown, Nude, Carbon
Basically, this contains everything you’d need for a really quick, simple eye: the two powders fill in the brows (and, unusually for me, I’ve been using the brush that comes with the palette, rather than one of my own, because it’s the perfect shape to create a smooth, strong brow), the nude shadow for the lid and up to the brow bone, and a little dab of the darker shadow in the socket: simple, easy, but really effective.
This is £19.95 and you can click here to buy it.
