21.12.12

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hi Tory,

have a very merry christmas and a wonderful and safe new year and let's all have a blast in 2013!

Here we all are at the festive season again, so it'll be a pause from me over the holiday period whilst I eat far too much Christmas pudding and watch way too much TV, in my pajamas.

I'll be back on January 7th, 2013 with a whole bunch of new features and posts, and more tweaks and updates to the blog and YouTube channel. In the meantime, here's wishing each and every one of you a happy holiday season and a truly peaceful and joyous New Year. May you be blessed with love, joy and glamour!

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

19.12.12

Product Reviews: New Lipstick Feature

Hi Tory,

it occurred to me the other day, as I was ploughing my way through yet another delicious tub of chickpea goodness, that this would be the best test of a lipstick

I don't know who invented houmous but they are a personal hero of mine. I could quite happily eat my own body weight in houmous - and that's a lot of houmous, believe me. Now, it occurred to me the other day, as I was ploughing my way through yet another delicious tub of chickpea goodness, that this would be the best test of a lipstick... which got me to thinking about a brand new feature that I'll debut in the New Year - The Chickpea Scale. Yes, people, I will test every lipstick I have, and continue to test lipsticks by eating a bit of pitta and houmous and then seeing how the lipstick holds up, and then awarding it from one to five chickpeas based on performance.

Because we all see reviews with texture and price and colour and pigmentation and finish, but no one ever really shows you staying power. And as someone who has had a lot of problems in the past (and even now) with lipsticks fading on me after five minutes, this is something that I really need to know.

So that's the first of a slew of new and shiny regular features that the New Yaer holds for all of you, my lovely glamorous peeps. I'll be updating with them one by one as we head up to the soft relaunch of February 2nd, but for now look out for the chickpeas!

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

14.12.12

Product Review: NYC Mousse Foundation

Hi Tory,

I've used Maybelline's Dream Mousse Foundation in the past before and to be honest with you, I absolutely hated it. So although I was curious to see that NYC do a range of mousse foundations, I was also a little bit reticent, and if it wasn't half price, I probably would have steered clear. All mousse or whipped foundations were pretty much the next generation of face products, boasting a lighter-than-air texture and flawless coverage particularly for visible pores, which I have in abundance.

I've yet to find a foundation that doesn't boast flawless coverage, but I decided to press on. The shade of NYC's Smooth Skin Mousse Foundation I got is Natural Rose, which is a little pale and oddly yellow for my skin tone - but the full range only includes three shades so I didn't have much to work with. As you know, I'm currently researching foundation shades in the drugstore brands for the lightest and darkest skin tones, so NYC scores a huge zero on that front. You get a beige, a pinky beige, and a slightly darker beige. And that's it.

The Facts

  • product contains 14g
  • You get a beige, a pinky beige, and a slightly darker beige. And that's it.
  • it's enriched with vitamin B5
  • it does NOT have an SPF
  • the shade range is 701 Natural Beige, 702 Natural Rose, and 703 Sand Beige
  • product comes in a small clear pot with plastic lid
  • current retail price is £3.99
  • from the website: "The formula is enriched with Pro-vitamin B5 that is known to help moisturize. This clever little pot contains oil-absorbing properties for a soft matte look. Skin perfecting coverage that last up to 9 whole hours. NYC Smooth Skin Mousse Foundation will keep you covered from your breakfast meeting in the Village all the way to your cool party in Brooklyn. Dermatologist tested."

Why would you opt for a mousse foundation? In general they offer a mattifying effect, which is a bonus for oily or combination skins. You also don't need much product so a little goes a long way, and they feel remarkably comfortable on the skin - so the light-as-air boast is pretty much on the money. So how did the product actually measure up?

The Verdict

  • The little goes a long way idea is very hard to judge on account of the all the air in the mixture. When I first put it on, using my damp beauty blender dupe, I used far too much product and the whole thing looked cakey and masklike.
  • The texture is strange... really strange and has a weird grittiness about it that I just couldn't get used to, no matter how much I blended it out.
  • It also clogged my pores, and quite visibly so. When I cleansed after the first try-out, there were disturbing beige plugs of foundation all over my skin that needed a good massage with facial cleanser to remove.
  • Any dry areas (the winter has been unkind to the area around my nose for example) were magnified about a hundred times, and no amount of blending got rid of it.
  • It felt light as air and soft to the touch, but the product moves. A lot.
  • On the second try-out I used tiny dabs of product and applied it with my fingers in circular motions, smoothing it afterwards with the damp beauty blender dupe. It was still cakey, still settled in my pores, and still had a masklike appearance - on the plus side it covers redness and dark areas.

Here's where I realised where it could in fact be useful - for me it's a terrible foundation, but it does actually make a pretty good concealer. It covers incredibly well, is lighter in texture than most concealers and so would be smooth, and you can dab it better than most concealers. As a foundation though I give it one out of five - and that's only because it was on special offer.

Full product details and shopping here.

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

12.12.12

Foundations for Light/Dark Skin Tones?

Hi Tory,

I have a couple of tutorials that I want to put out there involving foundations from the paler and darker ends of the colour spectrum... and you know that I try and use the more affordable brands wherever possible, which largely means drugstore and High Street brands. When mum started experimenting with makeup and I watched in the early to mid 70s, the choice was incredibly limited - namely beige. And about three shades of that, if you were lucky, in a very heavy panstick formulation.

the colour spectrum remains a thorn in the side of most women

Things have progressed in terms of texture and finish, but the colour spectrum remains a thorn in the side of most women - beige has never been and will never be the standard for skin tone. If you go to the upper ends of the price range, and look at companies like MAC and Illamsaqua, for example, there is a much greater range in skin tones, catering for everybody from the palest of porcelain to the darkest of ebony. At the moment, I'm researching foundations in the drugstore range, and will do a full post on that with swatches, but it's not very heartening reading.

So, as a kind of preamble, I wanted to enlist the help of all you lovely readers and viewers out there and find out what your experiences are like.

  • Are you mixing colours to get a match?
  • Do you find that you are forced to shop in the more expensive ranges?
  • Is there a High Street/drugstore brand that has out-performed itself for you?
  • What has been your experience with customer service?

I'm going to try and get this up, with swatches, next week, but any and all feedback is most gratefully appreciated - you can comment down below, or on the Facebook Page. Would love to hear from you all!

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

10.12.12

Happy First Birthday! Sort of!

Hi Tory,

A little over a year ago, I decided to put some videos up on YouTube to do the Big-Sister-In-Another-City thing and give out some makeup advice. Like most things in my life, I pretty much put it out there and made it up as I went along without thinking too much about blogs or designs or schedules.

It's the Boho way of doing things, trust me

So now we're at that Just Past Annual point - yay! one year old! ish! - I figured it was a good time to start doing some spring cleaning. In December. (It's the Boho way of doing it, trust me.) Over the next few weeks you'll see little and not so little changes here and there on the blog and channel to make it easier to find things, easier to see things, and easier to play along.

I'm also announcing something kind of big and kind of fun on February 2nd - so stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, look out for:

  • more in-depth blog posts
  • more whys with the hows
  • more comprehensive categories
  • easier navigation
  • regular features
  • more ways to connect
  • little design changes here and there
  • photos! photos! photos!

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

7.12.12

Morning After Makeup

Hi Tory,

there have been girlie nights with wine and movies, numerous parties, and the occasional missed train

I will confess. I have not always been the pink-cheeked Paragon of Virtue you see before you. (hem hem)

Several years as a journalist, staying up 'til all hours and interviewing drunk rock bands has prevented me from ever joining a nunnery. And, there have been girlie nights with wine and movies, numerous parties, and the occasional missed train. The end result is always the same - wake up on the couch with a crick in my neck and makeup that is a cross between a panda and Alice Cooper.

This is never a good look.

I don't advocate carrying a trunk of cosmetics around with you, particularly not in your neck of the woods of Central London. And although it would be nice to have the Pixiwoo sisters on call for such emergencies, real life isn't like that. (Sam! Nic! Help!) What I tend to do - after a lifetime of practice - is take a small but strategically stocked cosmetics bag with me so that I can fix what needs to be fixed, cover up the results of a hangover, and get myself to the bus stop looking like a human. It's what they now refer to rather euphemistically as The Stride of Pride. ;)

Products Used

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

3.12.12

Makeup Haul: Nail Polish and Other Delights

Hi Tory,

we made it!

We made it! Part Three of the great Albert Hall of makeup with polishes and sundries this time around... there's also Part Two and Part One. Next time I won't leave it so long ;)

Products Featured

Hugs and kisses,
xxx

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