Category Archives: beauty news

Last week I bought you a little edit of things non-kittenish, this week I present: FULL-ON KITTEN. And owls. And pretty floral prints. Let’s start with Paul & Joe, shall we? They have something of a penchant for featuring cats in their makeup range and this season’s collection is no different. Girl in cat mask, tick. Little slips of pressed-eyeshadow papers, decorated with cats? Cat eye pencil? Tick. Cats cats cats. You can find this set, which includes a makeup bag, lip balm, cheek colour, eye pencil and eyeshadow sheets, at ASOS here. Apparently the sheets can be used up to 100 times – what a brilliant idea! Especially if storage is a problem, but even if you just want to be able to slim down your in-handbag makeup kit.

From cats to gorgeous printed packaging. We have Pai’s Rosehip Oil encased in a decorated carton, £22 here (the oil is exceptionally good, read my review here); Roger & Gallet’s hand cream cracker, £6 here, Ciaté’s Olivia Palermo Eyeshadow Palette, £35 here (the most beautifully soft and velvety eye colours, see below) and the amazingly packaged Kaffe Fassett-designed body lotion for Heathcote & Ivory. What’s inside the boxes, you ask?

Ding! Your wish has been granted. How lovely is the Kaffe Fassett design on the lotion bottle? This body lotion smells amazing, very heady and with a long-lasting scent, and the formula is nicely rich and hydrating. It’s £12 here. I’m going to try and use the Ciaté palette tomorrow, the colours are so posh and glimmery. Keep an eye on my Instagram.

Oh, I nearly forgot: owls.

I love everything about this sweet little Paul & Joe eyeshadow; the cardboard box that looks as though it should contain old buttons or spare bits of thread, the pretty owl motif and the swirl of impossibly flattering makeup inside. I must get a photograph of this shadow on my lids because it’s a great everyday brightening shade to just wash across the lids. You can find it online here. It’s £18, which was (for some reason) more than I was expecting, but it really is the kind of shadow you’d get a lot of wear out of. Hold the front page, I’ll get a pic of it for you asap.

I’ve just given myself at least two extra tasks to do when I’m supposed to be “on holiday”, but I’d rather be clarting about with eyeshadow than hoovering the house, so I’m not exactly complaining…. Continue reading →

Clarins Spring

I’m already a little bit obsessed with the look of the Clarins Spring 2015 Garden Escape collection – in particular, the Instant Light Lip Comfort Oil. I won’t go into huge amounts of detail until I get my samples through but the collection launches in January. I don’t think Spring collections used to launch so early but these extended beauty seasons seem to be absolutely the norm now.

Clarins Garden Palette

Having been properly disappointed with the last Clarins palette, I’ve got much higher hopes for this one that looks all things elegant spring. I forget that Clarins does these stand out palettes – it’s really so pretty.

So, from in the first picture, we have Instant Light Comfort Lip Oil in two variants, Honey and Raspberry – they contain hazelnut oil, mirabelle and organic jojoba so I just can’t wait to try them. Then, a new Rouge Prodige Blush followed by brand new Instant Light Balm Perfector in six colours. There’s also a new pine green eye liner and some brand new lipsticks.

The actual launch date for Clarins Spring 2015 Garden Escape is 12th January. A more detailed post is coming but I just thought you’d like to see how everything’s looking over the other side of the year.

The post Clarins Spring 2015 Garden Escape appeared first on British Beauty Blogger.

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I mentioned this lovely Aveda eye cream in my March Favourites video but struggled to put my finger on exactly why I liked it so much. A few weeks on, and with many more days of trialling under my belt, I feel as though I can give you a better account of why this little tube of product has earned a place in my beauty favourites. (Think moisture, moisture, more moisture and a load of antioxidants.)

I have to say that I am quite cautious when it comes to recommending eye creams; they are actually very difficult to test because so many of the “beauty” complaints concerning the eye area are inextricably linked to lifestyle and to genetic makeup. If you’re out until 3am drinking shots of vodka and you have to get up at 6.30am for a meeting then there is NO WAY that any eye cream is going to make you look any better. Ditto genetic makeup: if you have serious dark circles, it’s unlikely that an eye cream is going to have that much effect.

So yes. Much of the eye area – fine lines, dark circles and so on – can be improved visibly by not absolutely caning it until the early hours, not smoking, making sure that you drink enough water and (I never remember to do this one) wearing sunglasses when it’s bright so that you don’t spend the entire day squinting. (Actually, I’m not sure there’s any proof about the sunglasses thing, but common sense tells me that if you live your life squinting like a mole then you’re bound to have more fine lines around your eyes than someone who actively screens against the sun. Surely? Thoughts below, please…)

Looking for a great eye cream with SPF? Read this…

However: I do like a well-formulated eye cream. If I’m doing all I can lifestyle-wise to keep my skin lovely and fresh, then it’s an added bonus to be applying a product that has effective ingredients, even if they’re just ingredients that simply keep the area hydrated. The Botanical Kinetics Energizing Eye Cream from Aveda does a little more than this, actually; as well as containing some great emollients that really make this a comforting and comfortable eye treat, it’s packed full of antioxidants (read about those here) and does seem to have a plumping effect on fine lines. Dark circles? Not so sure about, but it has worked on puffiness the few times I’ve had a bit of a pregnancy cry!

Post-cry eye mask reviews…

I don’t love the Aveda Energizing Eye Cream as much as the hi-tech Zelens Triple Action Eye Cream (Cult Beauty here), but then that is more than twice the price. And actually, I’m not sure that theZelens has the same richness and feeling of hydration as Aveda’s, which you can tap on underneath your concealer to really get a flawless, smooth finish. I’m impressed. There’s nothing shockingly dramatic about the results, but so many eye creams are just a waste of time that when I come across a nice one, I always think that it’s worth a mention.

You can find the Botanical Kinetics Energizing Eye Cream online here for £28.

The post Aveda Botanical Kinetics Energizing Eye Cream – Tick! appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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A peek inside my snug, which sounds sort of rude (to the immature/those blessed with overactive imaginations) but is actually the room that acts as a kind of antechamber to our bedroom. It was always supposed to be a little quiet reading room, almost like the lounge area of a hotel suite, but until now has just been a dumping ground for baskets of washing, boxes of beauty samples and the odd broken lamp. I’ve been doing most of my filming in this room so there’s usually a load of camera equipment too, but as my office at the end of the garden gradually empties of its junk I’m transferring things across, so there’s a bit more space than there was before…

The rosewood chests are (I believe) by Archie Shine – I’ve bought a few mid century pieces from a brilliant dealer in Hertford who trades under the name Funky Junky. She always has the most interesting bits and in excellent condition – you have to be careful with mid century or “retro” furniture because there’s a hell of a lot of tat about! Cut-and-shut sideboards with the wrong legs on, lamps that are a kind of Frankenstein hybrid of old tatty shade and new, overly-shiny base, the wiring from God only knows when…

The telephone was an eBay purchase many moons ago, the Pug lamp (which won’t stay, it’s just up there because – as I said – lamp graveyard) was from KARE, and the photograph is one from our wedding, nearly eight years ago now. I’m insisting that it goes up somewhere in the house – Mr AMR hates pictures of himself (oddly, because he’s a handsome thing) and until now it has been hidden away, either in the shed or spare room in the wardrobe or whatnot. No more. It’s good to have reminders of these happy days and this photo always makes me smile. Also, my boobs were about three inches higher than they are now, so, y’know, memories and all that.

The orange chair is from Natuzzi, bought probably about ten years ago now. My God, what a rigmarole it was ordering that chair. It took weeks to arrive and it was supposed to come with this lovely chrome-based footstool but they sent it with the wrong fabric (cream, if I remember rightly) and then when we re-ordered, they sent us an orange beanbag! We gave up then, got a refund on the footstool and were told to keep the beanbag, which gets randomly chucked about the house because it’s inelegant and blobby. Mind you, considering the abuse it gets, it’s still in quite good shape!

Perhaps, though, my favourite thing in this photograph is my Rory Dobner cat cushion. I bought a few years ago and kept it in the plastic wrapping waiting for just the right setting for it to make its debut. To be quite honest, I think it would look splendid in any situation – last week I had it on my bed against white linen and a grey knitted blanket and the whole thing was very picture perfect. Maybe I need more of these cat cushions – I could be a crazy cat cushion lady…

I’ve been really procrastinating over this skincare post: on the one hand, the Omorovicza Hydra Melting Cleanser is  the most beautiful new cleanser I’ve tried in ages – and I try a lot of cleansers. On the other hand, this is a cleanser that costs £65. (Update: see bottom of page.) And even though it’s a cleanser that feels so luxurious and dreamy that it’s almost a travesty to rinse it off, the fact that you do need to rinse it off puts it in an odd position. When you’re buying a serum or a moisturiser or even a mask, it’s easier – somehow – to justify a bigger spend. When it’s a cleanser you are – quite literally – washing your pennies (or pounds) down the plughole. For the minutes that the cleanser is going to spend on your face, it needs to deliver some kind of sublime, spa-like experience.

Luckily this does. It’s the bounciest, plumpiest cleanser I’ve ever used. Think OSKIA Renaissance Cleanser and multiply the cushiony feeling by ten. It has the cleansing abilities of an oil, the freshness of a gel, the comfort of a cream and the massageability (not a word but I’m taking it) of a balm. It is, I think, the cleansing balm for those who don’t like the oily feel of a balm – it’s cooler and smoother but whereas you’d think it would be lighter in texture than a balm, it feels incredibly dense and robust.

I just find it a total joy to use; there’s no tightness after removal (since my skin has been drier I get a little bit of tightness even after using a lush, oily balm like Emma Hardie’s!) and there’s no overpowering smell, just a faint sea-like scent. The Hydra Melting Cleanser is slippery enough to withstand whole minutes of massage yet rinses away easily – handy if you find yourself without a washcloth. (It happens. Especially when you have a dog who likes to run off with any scrap of fabric he can find – knickers, socks, flannels, muslin baby cloths…)

Omorovicza say that the Mallow flower in the cleanser helps to hydrate and reduce inflammation and that the sage, geranium and chamomile have an astringent and antiseptic effect. It certainly feels comforting and soothing – it’s a gorgeous gel-balm for dry skin but equally perfect for an oilier complexion with its effective cleansing abilities and non-stripping, easily-rinsed formula.

Nobody needs to spend £65 on a cleanser, but if you wanted to then this would be the one. It’s only very slightly more expensive than the ever-popular Eve Lom cleanser, which has mineral oil as its main ingredient. When you look at it like that, it’s kind of a no-brainer, if you’re looking to splash some cash.

Omorovicza Hydra Melting Cleanser is £65 online here.

*UPDATE: Omorovicza are offering readers 20% off any purchase at Omorovicza.com! The code is MODEL20 and will be valid until 23.59 on the 26th February 2016. It can’t be used in conjunction with any other discount codes. I know that this is a post about their cleanser but if you want to treat yourself to what I personally think is one of the most beautiful face spritzes ever invented then take a look at the Queen of Hungary mist. It’s like a portable luxury spa.

The post Cash Splash: Omorovicza Hydra Melting Cleanser appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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