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Posted on November 8th, 2011 by Dollface
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!
Posted on November 2nd, 2011 by Dollface
 My nails have been looking very much the worse for wear lately, so when I discovered a pack of Body Collection’s pre-glued french nails in my “to be reviewed” drawer a couple of weeks ago – right before a big family event, I might add – I figured anything would be better than the mess that is my natural nails, so I decided to give them a go.
This, of course, was a mistake. I made my discovery of these nails approximately 30 minutes before I had to start getting ready to go out (In the interests of full disclosure, I should add here that I’ve no idea how I came to have these. I may have bought them, but they may also have been sent to me by a PR…), and when you’re as clumsy as I am, you really need to allow more time for such things. However, I jumped right in, and started applying them.
The nails, as I say, are pre-glued, so technically all you should need to do is to take them out of the box and apply them to clean, dry fingernails.
In my case, however, there was one extra step required: I’m not a fan of super-long nails, and, because I’m not used to them, I find it quite hard to function properly unless my nails are trimmed to no longer than the tips of my fingers, so I had to file quite a bit off these, to avoid the “talons” look. They’re fairly easy to trim, and a combination of nail clippers and emery board soon had them at roughly the length I wanted. I didn’t, however, have enough time to do all ten nails, and get the edges looking perfect, so they still look pretty rough in these photos: if I’d spent a little longer and filed the edges more carefully, they’d have looked a whole lot better.
These were really easy to apply: you literally just press them onto your fingers, hold them down for a couple of seconds and you’re done. Unfortunately for me, all of the trimming and filing had taken so long that I didn’t have time to do the other hand, and had to go and immediately take them off again! I can report, however, that they were fairly easy to remove, too. I was a bit worried about this, having tried glue-on nails in the past which took forever to remove, but I just soaked them in hot water, and they came off easily enough: phew!
I wasn’t too upset about having to remove the nails right away though. They’d be convincing enough from a distance (especially if I’d taken a bit more time over the application), but up close I felt the nail tips and half-moons were too white, which made them quite obviously fake. That’s not to say I wouldn’t try them again, mind you: with a bit more time on my hands (no pun intended), I’d probably give it another shot: it’s much quicker than an actual French manicure, after all!
These are just £1.99 per pack. Click here to try them out for yourself.
Posted on October 26th, 2011 by Dollface
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.
Posted on October 25th, 2011 by Dollface
As the owner of fine, terminally limp hair, the quest for volume is a never-ending one, and when I heard various friends raving about the Babyliss Big Hair, I knew I would have to try one.
This is a rotating hair dryer basically: it has two heat settings and the revolving brush blows out air, allowing you to dry your hair and brush it out at the same time. The promised effect is more or less what you’d get from a professional blow-out at the salon: smooth, shiny hair, with added volume and bounce. Your stylist will generally achieve this effect by blow-drying the hair while using a large, rounded brush on it at the same time, but if you’ve ever tried to do this at home, you’ll know it can be a little tricky to manage brush and hairdryer together, especially on the back of the head. The Babyliss Big Hair, however, gives you both tools at once, allowing you to get that salon look at home: or so it claims, anyway!
I bought my styler at the start of the month, and, as described, it’s basically a large brush which just so happens to blow out hot air. There are two switches at the top of the handle which allow you to choose the direction the brush will rotate in: either towards your face for a smooth, turned-under look, or away from it, in a flicked-out style.
The first thing I realised when I started to use this is that it’s not exactly foolproof. In fact, the very first time I tentatively switched it on and applied the brush to my hair, it instantly tangled up so badly I was worried I was going to have to be cut out of it. Luckily for me, I managed to untangle myself pretty quickly, but there’s definitely a knack to using this, and took me a bit of practice to arrive at the perfect technique of holding the brush in place and then rolling it down the hair. I suspect some of my problems here may have been to do with the fact that I fail at life my hair is long, and therefore tangles around the barrel of the dryer more easily. If you have a shorter style, I’d imagine you’d find it much easier to use: if in doubt, though, I know there are quite a few tutorials on You Tube which may be worth a look!
Once I’d got my technique down, though, I was pretty impressed with the styler. It doesn’t exactly give me “Big Hair” – I’ve long since learned that absolutely NOTHING does that for me! – but it does create a great-looking blow-out, of the type I have never previously been able to achieve on my own. I find it particularly effective on my fringe, and the shorter strands of hair at the front of my head, which tend to stick out when I blow-dry normally, and it leaves all of my hair looking very smooth, with the ends turned under, which I like.
This is not quite a one-step tool for me, however, and I can’t use it to dry my hair from wet: or, at least, I could, but it would take forever. Instead, I have to either rough-dry most of my hair with my usual hairdryer, or leave it to air-dry for a while, before using the Big Hair to finish it off. Again, if you have shorter hair, I would imagine you’ll be able to use it right out of the shower: my hair is just too long for me to have the patience to dry all of it in sections every day, although for a special occasions it’s worth the time.
Overall, I’m happy I bought this, and have been using it most days. I still have the odd “tangling” incident, but nothing too bad, and because the barrel of the brush is large, if your hair does get caught up in it, at least it untangles easily!
This is £45.99 at Boots: click here if you want to try it for yourself!
Posted on October 13th, 2011 by Dollface
 Despite the best of intentions, I’ve had so much on this week that I’ve been struggling to keep up with product reviews… I came across this photo of Christie Brinkley at the Ides of March premiere this morning, though, and had to share, mostly because this is EXACTLY how I want my hair right now: if my Fairy Godmother could please just fix it for me to wake up every morning with my hair like this, that would be great, thanks!
Of course, in theory, this look is pretty easy to achieve as there’s nothing too complicated about curls. In practice, however, my curl-resistant hair would look like this for approximately 2.5 minutes, before reverting back to being poker-straight. I recently invested in a couple of different products to see if I could encourage the curls to stick around for longer, so I’ll post about those soon. In the meantime, don’t you think Christie Brinkley looks absolutely amazing? I was going to add the patronising “for her age” to that sentence, but actually, she looks better at 57 than I did at 21, so I’m just going to end the sentence at “amazing” and be done with it…
I promised a while back to show you some more of the products I was sent from the Dainty Doll by Nicola Roberts line, so today here are the two blushers I received: well, better late than never!
I was sent these in 001 (Hippy Shake) and 003 (Money Talks):
 As you can see, the 001 shade is a very pale pink, while 003 is a light brown, with a hint of shimmer:
 I have to confess that neither of these shades are ones I would have picked myself – one is too pink, the other too brown – so this in’t really a “review” as such, because I’ve only worn them to try the colours. I can’t really even call this a swatch post either, because both colours are so pale that it proved almost impossible to photograph them on my skin!
 If you look veeeery closely, you can just about see them!
This, however, is by no means a criticism of these blushers, because, of course, the whole point of this line is that it’s intended to be worn on pale skin, and the very pale, sheer coverage is a good thing in that respect, as many of us pale-skinned girls really struggle to find products that aren’t too bold, or heavy. These, by comparison, are very light, and I was particularly keen on ‘Money Talks’ (003), which is the perfect pale-girl “bronzing” shade:
I wouldn’t wear it on the apples of my cheeks, but it’s a good colour for shading and contouring, and a quick swipe over the forehead and cheekbones will also help give you a bit of a glow. Unlike conventional bronzers, it’s not too dark, or too orange, and I’ll be doing a bit more experimenting with it in the summer, I think.
The pink colour, meanwhile, is very, very pink:
This doesn’t look good on me – it’s actually too pale, which is something I’m really not used to being able to say! I have quite a few freckles, however, which make my face a bit darker than it would be otherwise, and if I use this shade on my cheeks, it makes me look paler than I really am, and a bit ill! If you have one of those perfect, porcelain complexions I so envy, however – a true “doll face” – I think this could look gorgeous!
 In this photo, you can’t really see the blusher at all: I’m wearing 001 on the apples of my cheeks, and 003 in the hollows under the cheekbones. The main issue I have with 001 shade is that because it’s so pale it sits on top of my freckles, and, in real life, looks quite “obvious”. As I said, though, on a very white complexion, I think it could give a lovely flushed look!
These cost £13.50 each, and are available at Harrods and Boots.
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’m on a bit of a mission to sort out my makeup collection at the moment, and one of my resolutions was to buy some new makeup brushes. My current brush collection is… well, the less said about that, the better, to be honest: I’m very guilty of using brushes until they’re way past their best, and although I did replace a few of them last year, the relatively high cost stopped me buying more. Faced with the choice between a new lipstick or mascara and a new blusher brush, I’ll always go for the makeup itself, but this month I decided it was high time to make a more sensible investment!
Luckily for me, this decision coincided with me discovering MAC’s ‘Packed to Go’ collections. As the name suggests, these are really intended as travel kits, and you can buy everything from eyeshadows and liners to lipsticks and powdered, all packed in a little travel pouch, ready to be slipped into your suitcase. I, however, was most interested in the two brush sets which are available as part of the Packed to Go collection, and although I’m not planning on travelling anywhere (more’s the pity), I figured they’d be a good way to stock up on some new brushes without spending too much money.
I chose the ‘Shape and Perfect’ collection, which is £39.50. For that, you get five brushes, complete with case:
 The brushes included are:
L-R:
219SE – pencil brush
275SE – medium angled shading brush
187SE – duo fibre brush
212SE – flat definer brush
168SE – angled contour brush
These are all short-handled versions of their regular-sized counterparts. I was actually expecting them to be smaller than they are, so was pleasantly surprised by their size. (Not that smaller handles would have bothered me, mind you: I’d rather pay less for a “travel-sized” brush than pay more for a “regular” one) Here’s a photo of them with my hand for context:
 I haven’t used these yet because they just arrived today, but so far I think they were a pretty good deal, and I’ll probably buy the other brush set in this collection – the Define & Blend brushes if it’s still available next month.
These are available from the MAC website: click here to visit it!
Posted in Tools & Brushes
Tagged MAC
Posted on September 26th, 2011 by Dollface
 As I mentioned last week, one of the products inside my surprise Glossybox was a full-sized tube of Neal & Wolf’s Harmony Intensive Care Treatment for hair.
One of the great things about Glossybox, of course, is that it gives you the opportunity to try products you possibly wouldn’t be able to justify buying on their own, or which you might not even have heard of.
The downside of that, however, is that you can very easily find yourself addicted to something that turns out to be way out of your price league. Because of this, I was actually scared to look this product up online and find out how much it cost, because folks: I love this. It’s awesome, seriously.
This is basically an intensive hair masque, of the “apply, leave to sink in for a few minutes, then rinse” type. You can choose to leave it on for 10-20 minutes, say, if you want to give yourself the full pampering treatment, but I’ve been using it in the shower, and basically just leaving it on for as long as it takes me to shave my legs. By doing this, I noticed two things straight away:
1. It smells fantastic. I’ve said a million times here that I’m rubbish at describing scents, so I’ll simply describe this as “the scent of luxury”. You can tell that it’s a high-quality product just by sniffing it in other words. This made me nervous, and also made me want to hate it, so I wouldn’t feel obliged to keep on buying it once my sample tube is done. I was to be disappointed in that wish, however, because:
2. You can feel the difference before you even get out of the shower.
There’s no need to dry and style your hair to see if this has made a difference: you can FEEL the difference as soon as you rinse it off. When I use my usual (cheap) brand of conditioner, my wet hair will feel a bit tangled and unkempt. After applying this, it’s as smooth as glass, and completely tangle-free. It’s also shinier, softer, and generally healthier looking once it IS dry. Oh, and it still smells great.
With all of this said, then, I was seriously worried. ”I bet this stuff costs a fortune,” I muttered to myself, typing the brand name into Google. I was sort of right to have worried: direct from Neal & Wolf, this costs £12.95 for a 200ml tube. Now, I have to confess: I’m fairly frugal when it comes to hair products, so that’s quite a bit more than I’d normally spend. In this case, though, I do think the price is justified: as I say, it’s a fantastic product, and as it’s an intensive treatment, it’s not something you need to use every day. I’ve had three or four applications out of my tube so far, and there’s still some left: bearing in mind that I have long hair, and get through more conditioner than the average person, I think that’s a pretty good deal, and it’s definitely going onto my “to buy when I have some spare cash” list.
Want to try it? Click here to buy it from Neal & Wolf
Posted on September 20th, 2011 by Dollface
Folks, I am a woman on a mission. My makeup collection is long overdue a clear-out. I had a look through my train case last night, and seriously, there are items in there that even I’d forgotten I owned. The fact is, once I re-discovered them, I was full of enthusiasm to start using them again, but I know it won’t last: those products will drop to the bottom of the box again, I’ll forget all about them… and then I’ll probably end up buying MORE things, without ever using up the ones I have. Does this sound at all familiar, or is it just me?
Anyway, as I said, I have a plan. I’ve already cleared some space in my desk drawers (yes, I use my desk drawers for makeup. Doesn’t everyone?) and I’m planning on buying some new storage for some of my collection. This Lesportsac makeup bag would be too small for everyday use for me, but I reckon it could come in really handy for brushes, pencils, or all of those other bits and pieces that end up floating around a larger storage system and getting lost. Or, it could be handy to pop in my handbag, rather than just leaving all of those lipsticks and concealers to float around and get lost.
I’m not normally a huge fan of flag prints, and I wouldn’t go near a Union Jack on my clothes. I do, however, quite like it on furniture and accessories, when the print takes on a bit of a pop art feel, harkening back to the days of Cool Britannia. (Why yes, I DID just cringe when I typed that!)
This is $38 at Shopbop: click here to buy it.
Posted on September 19th, 2011 by Dollface
When I look at celebrity beauty photos, I’m always most interested in seeing what my fellow redheads are wearing: mostly so that I can shamelessly copy, I mean take inspiration from, their looks.
With that in mind, here’s Christina Hendricks at last night’s Emmy Awards. Christina went for a real bombshell look on the red carpet (You can see her full outfit here) and matched it with a very classic, old Hollywood makeup style: red lipstick, flawless skin, flicked eyeliner, big hair. I love it, and not just because it’s essentially the same makeup I like to wear myself!
What do you think?
[Image: Fame Pictures]
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