Simple Beauty Blogger Event

I was invited to attend the Simple Beauty Blogger Event yesterday. I almost didn't go because I was feeling tired and sad, and then when I finally got out of the house, the heel of my boot came off most of the way to the train station! UGH. So after hurrying home to change shoes, I once again set forth to do battle with the dragons of depression, tiredness, and general apathy by having a good time.

I had a lovely time!

It was at Kettners in Soho, which was quite a fancy establishment. The room decorations were lovely, with some of the products in various terranium-like things around the room.

There were marvelous mocktails with lots of fresh fruit and such, and I got to meet some of the experts behind the Simple brand. We also got some really generous goody bags, and I'm keen to try out some of the products. Others, of course, may have to find a new home. But would you just look at all of it! Reviews shall occur post haste.

Later in the evening, there was the London Beauty Bloggers regular meetup, and I met some wonderful ladies there too. Cocktails and more goody bags! Wonderfulness abounds. I am super keen to try some of this stuff out too, and to go to more of these meetups and talk beauty, style, and life with these marvelous people. I'll post a full review of all the goodies (once I have tried them, of course).

All in all, a thoroughly awesome and enjoyable evening. I'm looking forward to the next London Beauty Bloggers meetup, that's for sure.

Nail polish review: Butter London "Yummy Mummy"

I got this polish as part of a sample box from Latest In Beauty.

I'll say this up front: I would never have chosen this colour, because I loathe it. Brown and pinky brown and me do not go together. It's not a bad colour, it's just ... not me. At all.

That said ... the polish itself isn't bad. Butter London do 3-free polish (no formaldehyde, touluene, dpb). So that's good. It goes on easily enough, and I got opacity in two coats. The only reason it's a bit dodgy in the photos is because I used my hands before waiting for it to set. So my bad, really. No streaking, not too viscous, not too runny, although I prefer a stubbier brush than the one it has.

If it was only a green or purple or something, I'd love it, I think. As is, however, I'm glad I didn't pay full price.

So, I've become a youtuber ...

.. and now I have a channel. It's here: https://www.youtube.com/user/brighturuloki

I've been blathering about bits and pieces; my update schedule is about as regular as my blog posts, so ... not very. If you'd like me to do something in particular, let me know and I'll do my best!

Not sure what else to say, really, so I'll leave it there today.

EB Samples - Bright Spring Blues

Today is hot. As in, 27C in the shade hot. In a country that doesn't believe in aircon, windows that open all the way, fans, eaves, or any real form of ventilation or shade, this is actually very warm. I would really not want to take the Tube today, that's for sure.

This is, of course, a perfect day to wear a full face of makeup over sunscreen. 

Oh well, at least I was sensible enough to wear a sleeveless top - under the jacket I needed to keep the sun off. 

These colours aren't bad - maybe not my ideal blues, but not awful. I did notice that the pale colour (Party Animal) looked quite green on its own, which is odd, because it's a pale baby blue pigment - albeit quite a warm one. 

Eyes - 

Base: Party Animal

Midshade and lower lashline: Conscientious

Dark bits: Mediatrix

Lashes: Collection Colour Lash All Day Mascara in 5 Electric Blue

Eyebrows: Illamasqua Eyebrow cake in Stark

Lips: L'oreal 6hr Glam Shine in 110 Addictive Peach

Face - 

Sunscreen: SunSense Sport Milk SPF 50+

Primer: Illamasqua Hydra Veil

Foundation: Illamasqua Rich Liquid 105 & Nude by Nature Liquid Mineral Foundation in Fair

No blush, because I was flushed and sweaty enough from the weather!

Nail Art: Marble swirl and Half-moon

I admit it - I got ambitious. I tried to do no-water marble swirling on my nails. The first attempt was a disaster. The second attempt was ... okay, I suppose. I used Illamasqua Hemlock for the base colour, and tried to use Illamasqua Geist and Max Factor Dazzling Blue for the swirls.



What went wrong? I think I may have used too much polish, and also the wrong swirling tool - I kept gouging a hole in the base layer. I maybe try this again, when I have time, patience, and steady hands available.

I still wasn't happy with it, though, so I took it off and tried to do a half-moon mani. It sort of worked. But there's room for improvement here too, that's for sure. The highlight colour is OPI Significant Other; a lovely warm light lilac with a green shimmer that I unfortunately couldn't capture well in the photo. The darker colour is Illamasqua Poke.




The technique needs work, but I love the colours on this. I'm such a sucker for purples.

Skincare: SunSense Anti-ageing Face Matte SPF 50+ Invisible Tint Finish.

I'm always on the hunt for new sunscreen products, and frequently on the hunt for stuff that evens out my skin tone.

From the label:
"A very high protection sunscreen designed for the face that provides the anti-ageing benefits of AHAs in a light moisturising lotion. This broad spectrum sunscreen helps prevent fine lines, wrinkles, and premature ageing from sun exposure."

It's a nice high SPF rating, and includes on the bottle how much you're supposed to use (5mL). It has a lot of free-froms - oil-free, PABA, lanolin, fragrance. It comes in a 100mL bottle, which is pretty good for a face sunscreen. The packaging is a fairly standard slightly-squeezy bottle. The formula is runny - a lotion rather than a cream.

Does it do what it says it does? Here are some before and after photographs - natural light, taken with my webcam.

Before - yeah, my skin is red today.


After -

 

Hm. Not very mattifying, in my opinion. I have pretty dry, non-shiny skin - I don't think it'd be good on oily skin, given how shiny it makes my face. And while it has toned down the redness a little, it also looks like I've gone nuts with the bronzer, especially along my jawline, which isn't so great. That said - it is significantly less noticeable than most tinted moisturisers I've tried in the past. I'm not sure how it would go on darker skins, but on anyone in the fair to medium range, I think it would be invisible, as the label claims.

As high-spf sunscreens go, it doesn't feel too bad on. It hasn't completely disappeared into my skin (even an hour later), but I'm used to that. It doesn't have much of an aroma, which is good. I can't speak to it's moisturising qualities - I applied it after my usual skincare routine.

Overall, it's what I'd classify as 'good for other people'.

Would I buy it again? Probably not, because it really is too dark a shade for me. Will I use it up? Probably - although I might instead use it on my legs or similar, where it won't be so obvious. Or I might give it away.

100ml, 21.50 from Ocado.com

Nails: Revlon Moon Candy in 210 Galactic

I was in Boots again today, taking advantage of their 3-for-2 on skin stuff and 10 points per pound offers, and I accidentally went past the nail varnish.

Well, sort of accidentally.

Anyway, I've been hoping this range would be in stock for a while so I picked up a couple of shades, and it being a Do My Nails day, decided to try one out.

The instructions say to apply two coats of the dark base colour, a single coat of the glittery bit, and a top coat. The base colour was surprisingly dark - a blue that's almost black. It was also a bit challenging to work with. It didn't really want to go on smoothly, unless I used quite a lot of it. It is really opaque with two coats. I decided to do my cleanup at this point, and discovered that it's a pain in the posterior to tidy up. That's why my nails are still a bit of a mess - I ran out of patience and care factor a bit. Then came the glitter layer. I kind of dolloped it on instead of how I would normally apply nail varnish - otherwise I ended up with the glitter bits just at the tips of my nails. I have no idea if that's How You Are Supposed To Do It. I finished with a coat of Illamasqua's Geist (UV reactive top coat), and a coat of Save The Nail 45 second top coat, and it's still uneven, which is annoying me. Grr.

Colourwise, it is a bit darker than I was expecting. The glittery bits are quite bright, though. I'm not sure if I like it or not yet - I'm used to having lighter colours on my nails. On the upside, I strongly suspect I'm not going to be able to tell if I dent or smudge it, unless it's really bad. On the downside, chips are probably going to be obvious. I'll definitely be giving this another go at a later date.