Category Archives: Makeup General

I should get this, shouldn’t I? Well, it does have my name on it, after all…

Actually, the whole range has my name on it: Doll Face Natural Beauty Cocktails is clearly a company after my own heart (and my own cash, by the oh-so-tempting look of things), because they also use cute retro-style packing in their range of skincare products, all of which use fresh, natural ingredients which, they say, are “tested on starlets, not animals”. Love it!

Their own website can be found here, but if you’re in the UK, you’ll be pleased to know that some of the products are also available from one of my very favourite websites, Dollydagger. They’re stocking products like Lolita Restore and Heel Peel:

It uses ingredients like honey and pumpkin to bring back a radiant, youthful complexion.

It uses sea minerals to rejuvenate the skin, and retails for £45.

I love the sound of both of these (and the other products available), but most of all I love the branding and, of course, the name. And the £30 train case has gone straight onto my Wish List!

Because I’m far too lazy for the maintenance that goes into self-tanning on a regular basis, I tend to only hit the bottle when I absolutely have to: i.e. when I know I’m going to be baring my legs without the benefit of tights, trousers, or anything else that successfully masks their deathly paleness. Living in Scotland, of course, means that this doesn’t happen very often at all, because most of the time it’s way too cold for that kind of malarky. By the time you read this, however, I’ll (hopefully) be on holiday in Florida, enjoying a rare blast of heat on my cold, pale limbs, and this means that I’ll be applying my gradual self-tanner every couple of days.

To start with, everything will run smoothly. After the first week, though, I’ll start to run into problems. The first couple of self-tan applications, you see, will get old. They’ll start to flake off, and look patchy and nasty, and I’ll start to look a little bit like I have some kind of terrifying skin disease, particularly on the chest, which is where this flaking will be most obvious. Simply applying more tanner over the top will fix the problem for a little while… but only for a little while. Exfoliating helps too, but it doesn’t completely remove the oldest, patchiest areas of tan, which means that by the end of my three-week stay, I’ll probably have given up altogether, and will be in the process of allowing myself to return to my natural, pasty shade, getting rid of all that build-up before beginning the process all over again.

If only I had some of  St. Tropez’ Tan Detox. This is a bath oil that helps rid your skin of self-tan buildup, getting rid of the accumulation of old self-tanner, and leaving your skin soft, smooth, natural… and ready for the next application of tanner, if you so desire. Because it’s a bath oil, the whole process should actually be pleasant and relaxing, too, which is another bonus as those aren’t words I’m used to using in connection with fake tan.

The downside of this is that it’s fairly expensive at £25 per bottle, although they have thrown in an exfoliating cloth, too. If you want to try it out, it’s available at Harrods and QVC.

Sorry for the lack of posts today, folks: I was suddenly hit with the urge to have a massive clean-out (this happens every time I go on vacation, I swear), and so it was that I spent most of the afternoon clearing out the filing cabinet that serves as my desk drawers, and replacing most of the actual “filing” with… makeup. And other beauty products. The cabinet has six drawers, and now half of them are devoted to beauty. I think I’ll call them the Dollface Drawers.

Here’s my “To be reviewed” drawer…

Ah well, I’d rather have beauty products than bits of paper, anyway!

As it’s a public holiday today and Monday, I’m taking the opportunity to have a long weekend, re-charge my batteries, and hopefully reduce those dark circles under the eyes a little. And shop, obviously. I’ll be back on Tuesday: until then, I hope you have a wonderful Easter, whatever you’re doing!

Well, as I’ve mentioned a couple of times (or three, or four…) I’m off to the Canary Islands on Monday, to try to grab a quick bit of sunshine before Christmas! Before I go, though, I thought I’d show you the little product haul I brought home with me today: these are the products I always find myself buying right before a holiday (plus a couple of sunscreens I’ve been meaning to write about for a while), and they are…

1. Dylash 45 Day Mascara by Eyelure

I’ve always thought the word “mascara” in this product’s name was a little bit misleading, because it’s an eyelash dye, not a mascara, so it won’t do any curling, thickening or lengthening. It will turn pale lashes (and brows) dark, though, and when your lashes are as pale as mine, that’s always a good thing! I’ll still be using my trusty mascara, of course, but for those days when I’m just headed to the beach or pool, I’ll be really glad to have dyed my lashes/brows with this!  (My tutorial explaining how to use it is here, in case you’re interested!)

2. Lash Extend Ultra Natural Eyelash Extensions

Can you tell I spend  lot of time thinking about eyelashes? They’re the thing that makes the biggest difference to my appearance, and while most of the year I’m obsessed with mascara, when I’m on holiday I sometimes like to be able to go without sometimes (although not often, it has to be said), so before I go, I’ll normally stick on some of these. They’re individual false eyelashes and they claim to last up to four weeks. I’ve found 5 – 7 days to be more realistic, but at least they get me through an early morning flight without forcing me to get up even earlier and apply makeup! (Tutorial on these here.)

3. Botanics Soothing Eye Makeup Remover

Um, yeah. This is the last eye-related product, I promise! I’ve written about this a lot, so all I’ll say is that I never go on holiday without it. Love it.

4. John Frieda Luminous Colour Glaze in Radiant Red

Since I first wrote about this, I’ve re-purchased it several times (and have also got better at applying it, so no more of the streakiness I mentioned in my first review!). I like to use it before vacations, not only because it’s a really excellent conditioner, and always leaves my hair super-soft, but because it makes my hair look really shiny and healthy.

And now for the sunscreens! These aren’t the only ones I’ll be taking with me (I have very fair skin, so I get through a LOT of sunscreen), but the ones I’m currently liking best:

5. Coppertone Kids SPF 50 Continuous Clear Spray

Yeah, it’s for kids. No, I don’t care. I’ve only ever bought this in States, so I’m not sure if it’s available in the UK – I do know I haven’t seen it here, and that most high SPF sunscreens here tend to be of the thick and gloopy variety, which I hate. I love this one because it’s clear, it dries instantly, and the nozzle makes it super-easy to apply. I got through two bottles of this in Florida this summer without a hint of sunburn, and brought this one back with me. Its only disadvantage is that it doesn’t tend to last long – or not on me, anyway (I suspect the spray leads to a lot of wastage), so as a backup, I have….

6. Clinique Sun-Care Body Spray, SPF 30

I first bought this on impulse. I was on my way to a christening and had convinced myself the sunscreen I’d brought with me (Which was of the white, gloopy variety – this was before Coppertone Kids came into my life, obviously!) would stain my dress, and would look too greasy for a formal event. I was probably right, too. Clinique’s was the only clear spray available at the airport, so I bought it, and liked it so much that I’ve re-purchased it a couple of times since. It’s SPF 30, so I use it on duller days, but as with the Coppertone, it goes on easily, dries in quickly and doesn’t stain clothes. It’s also available at almost every airport I’ve ever been to, which is probably why I continue to buy it, despite the fact that I’m sure there are lots of other products that are just as good!

So, there you have it: not all of my holiday products by a long shot, but today’s haul, plus a couple of extras. I’ll be packing tomorrow, so probably won’t have a chance to blog again before I go. Hope everyone has a good couple of weeks, and I’ll see you when I get back! (Well, not literally, of course, but you know what I mean…)

(P.S. Forgot to mention – all of the products above, with the exception of the sunscreens, came from Boots.)

Hi everyone,

First of all, huge apologies for the fact that the site has been down all day today.

Secondly, you’ll probably notice that now that it’s back, it’s displaying posts from September. This is because at about 2pm today our web hosts, Heart Internet, contacted us to say that while they were working on our server they had managed to irretrievably lose the entire site  – and all the rest of our websites – and that there was absolutely nothing they could do to recover it. Essentially, they told us Hey, Dollface! (and, indeed, all of our other sites) was gone for good.

Yes.

As you can see, that turned out not to be true and they have managed to restore most of the site. We have, however, lost just over a month’s worth of posts, and the posts we do have don’t currently have images. We have our own backup of those posts, but it will take us several days to get them back online, and unfortunately there won’t be any posts here on Monday because it’s going to take us at least until then to deal with the considerable fallout from this fiasco.

We also currently have issues with comments, which aren’t working, and … oh, about a thousand other things which are being worked on right now.

We’re really sorry for the interruption in transmission, and hope you’ll bear with us for a couple of days until we can get back on our feet.

Amber