A quick look at the AirKiss Lipstick Collection - FrontCover Autumn Winter 11

Part of FrontCover's magazine style format is to include quotes from people who have expressed love for the brand. Having loved their shadows I was initially a little unsure when I discovered my name was on a lipstick box, but that was back in May - looking back at my year now, it has to be said this one has been far more about lipstick than eyeshadow for me, with the advent of Red in my life. And the perk of saying yes to having your quote on a box? You get that box to play with.

From FrontCover AW10 review 

No I didn't know which post I wrote it in either - just looked it up!

So, here we have a box of colours to experiment with. Just as FrontCover set out to give a rainbow of shadows 4 years ago, here they've presented a 'rainbow' of lipcolours. No, not a full rainbow, that would be going a little far for the Christmas market, but a range of 20 mini lipsticks that help you find the type of red, or pink or neutral that suits you. For each one of us that's picked up a red that's too orange or a pink that's too blue and banished the idea of those colours to the dustbin forever. Or of course for the girl who just likes to play - know one of those?! ;p

Random selection of swatches

Frontcover strive to include everything you might need in their kits so this one includes a lip brush and nude liner. I do think the brush will come in handy as I'm quite conscious of the big difference in size and pressure required between these minis and full sized bullets. On the other had it's great to have such a selection, and yet still portable.

Airkiss costs £20 and is part of Boots Christmas 3 for 2.

No Affiliate links

Received without charge as a thank you for the use of a quote

FrontCover Autumn Winter 11

I first got a sneak peek at some of FrontCover's Autumn Winter 11 range on a training day I did with them back in May. I loved what I saw then, but what I didn't know was that, there was better still to come.....well better for me as what's proved to be my 2 favourites out of the 14 sets weren't there.

Over the last 4 years FrontCover have slowly expanded from the original 7 Christmas sets, to a whopping 14 for this Christmas season.

As usual these are available exclusively from Boots and are part of the seasonal 3 for 2 offer. Don't forget Boots have a free buy and collect facility if the products you are after are not available at your store. Last year's nail set sold out very quickly and I'm expecting the same may happen with AirKiss, Frontcover's Lipstick answer to Rainbow Eyes. Hopefully try and bring you some pics of that tomorrow.

Yesterday I got to stick my fingers in a few pots, to bring you some swatches, most of which will have to wait for another day but here's a few pics to be going along with:

Brush Work £20

Come to Light £10 

The Point is Pink £20

Style Queen £35

 Finger Print £14

Micro Rainbow Eyes £12

Micro Rainbow eyes swatched alone

and each colour as a liner using the Shadowline from the kit

No Affiliate links

FOTD 23/09/11

 Face

Illamasqua Matte Primer

don't know why I used this - definitely prefer my skin base without

 Skin Base 2

Brows

Illamasqua Eye Brow Cake - Stark

Cheeks

Avon Illuminating Face Pearls

Lips

Max Factor Colour Elixir Lipstick - Chilli 

Eyes

Rimmel Sexy Curves Intense Black

Illamasqua medium pencil - Vow - lower waterline

Sleek Safari Palette

Mr Sparklz bought this for me off Ebay some time back and this was my first play

At the time I wasn't sure I needed it - but the greens are lovely

Big kisses for the Man

 Illamasqua Eye Brow Cake and Avon Illuminating Face Pearls = Event bag content

Superdrug MUA - New Shadow Colour Swatches

As promised yesterday, here's a closer look at the New Make up Academy colours. Mr Sparklz came home with 22 a pale pink this afternoon, still no sign of 30 though which appears to be a pale gold.

I immediately took a liking to shade 28 when I saw them yesterday, but the one that really stood out as I swatched was shade 24. Shades 21, 23, 24 and 25 all had a lovely texture and swatched really smoothly. There was a little more resistance as I ran my finger over the rest of the colours and I had similar issues with shade 26 and shade 31 to those I had with the blues and greens in the Poptastic MUA Pro palette. On the whole though I really prefer these single colours to the palettes. I feel the formula suits the larger size pan better.

I added a few dots of colour from the Poptastic palette, although similar none were exactly the same colour.

The original 20 shadows can be seen here.

Superdrug New MUA Shadow Colours!

Look what Mr Sparklz bought home today - Super Sleuth that he is, spotted someone selling them on Ebay last night and went in search today - I thought maybe I'd missed something when he produced them, but no they don't appear to be on Superdrug's website yet nor can I find any other mention save that one Ebay seller.
It's a bit late for swatching tonight, so that will have to wait till tomorrow. Pictured here are colours 21 -31 minus 22 and 30 which weren't there. Excited to see some new colours from MUA.

Empties - Liz Earle - Carita - Kenzo

Liz Earle Botanical Shine Shampoo - This is straight back on my shopping list for next week if I can find my way into John Lewis whilst I'm in town. Or maybe a trip to Westfield Stratford City will be in order. Back in November when I first succumbed to buying this I wasn't at all sure. So many rave reviews and my hair was a bit merr but I persevered and realised that where I'd read you only needed a little and lots of people had used too much, I'd gone the opposite way and used too little for the length of my hair. This was my second tube, and given that my hair is long and I rarely use products in it so I tend to wash it twice a week, I think it still last well. I definitely use less of the conditioner as I'm only about half way into the second tube of that. An interesting turn around as I'd go through conventional conditioner way faster. Both Products cost £8 for 200ml

Carita DIAMANT DE BEAUTÉ - Regenerating midnight concentrate - I received this 5ml sample at the NBBE in January - Sometimes you try something that's way out of your budget and this meh why would I bother - not this - it felt gorgeous and thick to the touch but disappeared quickly into my skin and made it feel lovely - and a restful scent to boot. I used it earlier this year at a time when life was busy and really appreciated that touch of utter luxury. With the instructions to: Place a small amount all over the face and leave for 10 to 15 minutes, like a mask. The frequency of use depends on your needs at any given time: 2 to 3 times a week for three weeks as an intensive treatment, or once a week as a preventive measure.Even a 5ml sample lasts well. The cream was a gorgeous lavender colour and was held in a similarly coloured plastic within the sample tub so that I didn't realise as quickly as I might how close to the end of it I was. When I did, I was on holiday and left a last little bit to savour whilst writing up a review. And here is my cautionary tale with this product. If it's in your price bracket it's well worth a try, but do take care of it. When I opened it up yesterday, maximum 6 months after opening it had turned to grey jelly. The marvellous scent is there, but I think maybe my bedroom just proved to warm for it over the summer months. £295 for 50ml

Jungle L'Elephant - Kenzo - My beloved Elephant is no more - well, a spray away from it. I bought this about 14 years ago on a trip to France buying alcohol for our wedding. Until recently it was my one and only trip into higher end scent. Before that I'd only dabbled with the Bodyshop. Since then I have treasured it and kept it in a dark place, using it as a treat and then whilst getting and being pregnant - pretty much not at all. There were so many scares about what was in makeup and perfume around when I was feeling pretty vulnerable that I quit most things. It's only recently, with the arrival of Agent Provocateur's EDP in my life  that I've started to feel undressed without a splash of scent about my person. Thankfully Mr Sparklz has been promising to buy me a new bottle for a while and having spotted just how little was left I now have one winging it's way towards me. I always knew I liked heady, off beat scents and this was borne home to me by this brilliant review from The Non-Blonde that I found when investigating my long term love the other night. Needless to say with tastes like these I'm somewhat desperate to become acquainted with Illamasqua's debut offering to the Perfume market - Freak wouldn't mind checking that elusive Tiger out too!
My Beloved is coming to me from Cheap Smell where it costs £39.75 for 50ml

Carita=PR sample

Max Factor Colour Elixir Firefly

When swatching Max Factor's Colour Elixir Lipsticks yesterday, I came to the conclusion that I wanted another 'my lips but better' colour as I really don't have many of those at all. I've been such a magpie for colours recently and I wanted a colour that I could wear dare I say it  - without makeup. I've always been awful at waking up in the mornings and makeup really doesn't figure for me when I have packed lunches to sleep walk through.

After all the waiting to try these, I was a little concerned but Firefly proved to be everything I wanted. There's a slight vanilla scent that I wasn't expecting, but otherwise it really is lovely.

Max Factor Colour Elixir Lipstick - Swatches

If you follow me on twitter, you may know that I've been seriously longing for these lipsticks since seeing the advert on my local Bus Stop a couple of weeks ago. It's a long time since an ad has made me want to go out and investigate something in quite that way. I think it's partly the way it makes them look way more expensive than they are.

I'm currently in the middle of sorting out the revamp and recycle of my kitchen following the death of the oven at the end of August. Several jobs we had been planning and a few we hadn't, are now on the agenda so I've been trying hard to keep the spending down by staying away from the shops. Finally yesterday I went for a play. The swatches were done for my own benefit and were taken with my small Traveler camera - I never find the colour reproduction as good as with my Olympus but they do give you some idea - so here they are for you to share.

The range consists of 15 lipsticks only 12 of which appear to be on sale at the places I visited - No Midnight Mauve 711, Pearl Maron 36 or Burnt Caramel 745. Amazingly I managed to get from one shop to another with the swatches intact - so some pics have an additional colour at each end as the testers for Angel Pink 610 and Sunbronze 837 were missing from the first shop.

Sorry I didn't want to clutter this one too much with names as well - they are on pic nearer the bottom 

From top or left to bottom or right:  

610 Angel Pink - not all pics

510 English Rose

830 Dusky Rose

755 Firefly 

894 Raisin

685 Mulberry

825 Pink Brandy

827 Bewitching Coral

715 Ruby Tuesday

853 Chilli

833 Rosewood

837 Sunbronze - not all pics

Here's what Max Factor say: For instant fabulous colour and smoother, softer* lips over time look no further than Max Factor’s new Colour Elixir Lipstick. The Elixir formula contains a 60% blend of skin emollients, conditioners and antioxidants including vitamin E, for a visible transformation in the look and feel of your lips in just 7 days. As you apply the Colour Elixir Lipstick, it actively moisturises and smoothes lips. Enjoy rich and gorgeous looking colour on smooth, beautiful lips! *vs bare lips

in bright autumnal sunlight

in shade

 in deep shade

Not sure if this picture adds anything, but to me it gives an interesting perspective of the colours in shadow

after all we don't spend all day outside.

I'd gone in fully expecting to buy Mulberry and Ruby Tuesday, the colours that immediately spoke to me. But recent experience encouraged me to check out all the colours and opt for something different.

In the end I bought Chilli and Firefly from Superdrug where they are currently £2 off as opposed to Boots who have them on full price at £7.99 but on 3 for 2. The security labels left quite a mess and required a drop of nail varnish remover to get them back looking their best. 

I chose Chilli and Firefly because I was keen to try some colours that I don't currently have in my collection, but of course I'm still longing for Ruby Tuesday and Mulberry......

NOTD - revisiting Nails inc Brompton Place

Revisiting, because Brompton Place was my absolute fall in love with Nail Varnish colour of 3 years ago. I got it in a Nails inc Today's Special Value from QVC - Bubblegum Pink or Barbie Pink as I've also seen it described was not a colour I'd have considered buying - Hot Pink yes - but this no - and I fell totally in love. Wore it loads, but then, with so many colours to choose from in a burgeoning polish collection I haven't been back for a while. 

I found 2 coats applied much more easily than I remembered, I think my memories of this are probably clouded by Fleet Street, another creme from Nails inc, but also perhaps my technique has improved somewhat in the intervening time.

Still loving it Brompton Place very much, so I'm pleased to see that it's not vanished but very much alive and well from Nails inc, Boots and BeautyBay at £11.

And a quick shot of the outfit that made me reach for BP. Fantastic Bias cutting from Monsoon make this one of the few dresses I own in a non stretch material. I bought it for a couple of pounds in a charity shop because I loved the material and thought I could use it for something. Never expected that it would fit me so well. Butler & Wilson Jewellery and vintage bag.

Basecoat Avon Nail Experts 24k gold strength = PR Sample

Topcoat Nails inc Kensington Caviar = Purchase

Avon Ultra Colour Rich Moisture Seduction Lipstick - Rose Ribbons

Rose Ribbons is another colour from Avon that wouldn't have been my first choice, but has quickly become a staple. Recently I've been so into bright colours when it comes to lippies that I wouldn't have given it a first glance. Yet I find myself reaching for it almost daily at the moment. For me it's almost a my lips but better colour - yet when I shoot it for a lip swatch it looks way more shiny. Unfortunately I've had a couple of large spots recently so I'm not feeling much like giving it in full face context, but hope to do so with both this and Temptress soon.

The Moisture Seduction Lipsticks have a marbled effect with the Rich, ultra-creamy lipstick intertwined with ribbons of hydrating moisture that can be seen in the picture below. I did take pics of this unused but the colour representation wasn't great and I guess I deleted them because I can't find them anywhere. I think the moisture marbling effects the wear of these lipsticks and the evenness with which colour applies. It's not an issue on this colour because it's so near to my natural lips that wear isn't noticeable in the same way as with a bright colour like Fuchsia Fever, where top ups are required much more regularly. The Ultra Colour Rich Moisture Seduction Lipsticks are SPF15 which is great news but if it's high impact colour your after I'd be much more inclined to the Ultra Colour Rich Colordisiac Lipsticks.

Avon regularly have offers and since last week they've changed again and the Ultra Colour Rich Moisture Seduction Lipsticks are currently on offer at £4.50 - normally £8.50 - whilst the Ultra Colour Rich Colordisiac Lipsticks are back to full price.

PR Sample