Category Archives: beauty look

When I went to write this comparison post I realised that the Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum foundation didn’t have its own page here on the website. A travesty! It’s such a good little base – it behaves exactly how I want a foundation to behave, with a light and comfortable texture and a fresh, glowy finish. I recently pulled it back out of my stored makeup collection so that it can live in the house (rather than the cosmetics quagmire of my office) where it will be loved and well-used and perhaps even have the opportunity to travel the world. It’s a fine old life for the chosen foundations, I tell you! (Currently the chosen ones in the en suite cabinet are: Armani Maestro Glow, Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua, Chanel Les Beiges, Chanel Perfection Lumiere Velvet (I’m working on a comparison post), Max Factor Miracle Match and Laura Mercier’s Silk Creme Foundation, which I think I prefer to the new Candleglow, but the jury’s still out.)

Anyway, I wanted to compare the new Bourjois City Radiance foundation to the older favourite, Healthy Mix Serum Gel Foundation. City Radiance is in a tube, calls itself a “skin protecting foundation” with “brightening effect” and has an SPF30. Healthy Mix says “instant blending gel, flawless complexion, undetectable coverage” on the back of the pump-action bottle and “16h radiance-boosting” on the front – the two foundations are after pretty much the same thing. Glowing skin. Though it does seem that the City Radiance leans more towards the idea of protection – protecting the skin from the ravages of city life perhaps? With the sun protection and the “anti-pollution screen” that I’ve just spotted on the front of the tube, that sounds about right. In all honestly, protection against environmental factors is something I look for in my skincare, if anything, so I can’t say I’m really going to dwell on that at all. I just want to compare them as cosmetics – coverage, finish, feel.

Things didn’t get off to a great start for little new-tube City Radiance, because though I have my perfect colour match in the Healthy Mix (52, Vanille) I really couldn’t find my ideal partner in City Radiance. I swatched 1, 2 and 3 and decided that 2 was the best match, but you can see in the (absolutely gorgeous, not) photo above that at first glance the match didn’t look too great. (Bottom stripe is 1, top is 2.) However, shade 2 did blend out really well – behold:

I only have it on the right-hand side of my face, in the picture – you can see that not only is the shade more than okay, there’s a real glow going on. The City Radiance is definitely brightening and I’d say that the coverage is very good, though I didn’t find it the most pleasant foundation to apply. It was ever so slightly too thick for my liking. But let’s come back to that and skip on over to the juicy, fresh-feel Healthy Mix Serum and its lightweight gel formula – I’ve applied this to the left-hand side, as you look at the photograph:

Now is it me, or does the Healthy Mix just look a bit more real? Less flat? I’ve stared at my face for so many hours, now, that I’m struggling to uncross my eyes, so I would love to know what you think. I’ve done some close-ups of my skin, too. (God, you must really want to know about these foundations if you’ve read this far! It’s like a GCSE science project!)

First, the City Radiance:

and then the Healthy Mix Serum:

(Sorry – that’s a pillow crease you can faintly see down the side of my face. Ha.) You might not be able to see any difference at all, but zooming in on the computer I can tell you that the Healthy Mix does look just a bit more natural whereas the City Radiance is slightly flat – the skin has less of its natural variation and character left, probably because the coverage is slightly heavier.

City Radiance reminds me a bit of a CC Cream, though I realise that CC Creams come in many textures and variations; it has a slight something that I want to call chalky, or claggy, but is neither. It’s a creamy texture that settles to almost exactly the same finish as the Healthy Mix, I just don’t think it has the same beautiful high-end feel.

For me, the older classic beats the new launch. City Radiance has a different lean, as I noted before – highly portable in its little tube and with the added “anti-pollution screen” and SPF 30, though I can’t imagine you’d ever apply enough of it to provide adequate protection, if you were relying solely on that. It’s still a good base, and if you want mega-glow and a more uniform look to the skin then certainly opt for this one (or the amazing Effaclar BB Blur for oilier skin). But if you think you’ll be bothered by a thicker feel (I’ve just thought – it’s very much like the feel of a suncream, which makes sense!) and you’re pining for that dewy, juicy, moisturised look that we all so loved before all of the more velvety finish foundations came along, plump for Healthy Mix Serum.

Bourjois City Radiance is £9.99 at Boots.com here and the Healthy Mix Serum is £10.99 here.

The post Bourjois Foundations: Healthy Mix Serum vs City Radiance appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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Everyone’s loving the Bourjois Rouge Edition Lip Velvet – a lush, matte consistency lip product that’s proving its worth in terms of longevity and colour impact. I never wear matte lips so I’ve been scooting around the internets to see what other bloggers think and I haven’t found a negative word yet!

Happy Nude Year (I know.. I’m biting my tongue) is a buff pink shade – the kind of colour that’s like your lips but more so. I think it will suit just about every single skin shade. Happy Nude Year joins eight other shades of Bourjois Rouge Edition Lip Velvets. Boots has an offer on Lip Velvets (lots of offers on everything actually) that is equivalent to a three for two, and they’re £8.99 each. Happy Nude Year hasn’t hit the shelves yet – give it a few weeks.

The post Bourjois Rouge Edition Lip Velvet New Shade appeared first on British Beauty Blogger.

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Aerin perfume: it was always going to be very pretty, wasn’t it? The cosmetics line certainly is, with its pale pink packaging and its gold compacts and its flattering, illuminating makeup shades. The perfumes don’t let the side down; they come in petite glass bottles with chic labelling and smooth, precious-stone-like lids. All very feminine, but in a pleasingly modern way.

Ikat Jasmine is one of the only jasmine fragrances I can bring myself to wear; I love the smell of jasmine in the air, but I’m not too keen when it hits the skin. Or my skin, to be more accurate. I don’t mind it so much on other people, but I can find it a little overwhelming and heavy on myself. It gives me a headache. Saying that, I’ve used plenty of body products containing Jasmine and not suffered any dramatic fainting fits; perhaps it’s just when the scent is nearer to my head!

More fragrance posts…

Back to Ikat Jasmine and its delicate, clean scent. It reminds me of freshly-washed hair – maybe my Mum used to use something with jasmine in when I was small, I’ll have to ask her. But yes; freshly-washed hair and clean, inviting bathrooms. If this perfume was a bathroom (random!), it would be one in a beautiful beachfront house, with whitewashed floorboards and one of those big claw-footed baths with old-fashioned taps. The window would be open and the long white curtains would be billowing in the slight breeze, and it would be the type of bathroom that had stylish black and white photos on the wall, but a collection of starfish and conch shells lined up along the windowsill. (Sorry, been obsessing over too many interiors mags recently!)

But there’s a method to my description madness; Ikat Jasmine seems to have this sea-air freshness about it, rather than the sometimes cloying, heady, incense-stick richness that jasmine fragrances can often have. I have a feeling that the appeal of this particular jasmine, for me, at least, is down to the hints of tuberose and sandalwood – neither overly apparent on their own, but both subtly hanging about in the background taking the edge of the jasmine and softening everything up a bit, making it all every so slightly powdery. I won’t say that Ikat Jasmine will ever be on my “popular shelf”, but it has given me a new appreciation of white florals.

(Disclaimer: it’s quite possible that everything I smell at the moment is completely off-kilter. I’m not sure quite how much pregnancy hormones affect smell in the second trimester! I’ll probably have to re-visit all of my fragrance posts after the baby’s born…)

(Update: I’ve just seen that I wrote a post about Jasmine-Scented Things a few years ago. How tastes change, so funny that I liked Jasmine Rouge from Tom Ford – it’s way too much for me now!)

Aerin’s Ikat Jasmine is £85 from JohnLewis.com

The post Pretty Aerin Perfume: Ikat Jasmine appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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Nectar Thermique

In an earlier post about Phyto, I said it was one of two new hair products that I’ve incorporated into my hair routine (such as it is – I’ve made it sound far more exciting and complex than it is, just by calling it a routine!). The other product that I’m absolutely loving at the moment is Kerastase Thermique, available in three variants. I’m alternating between Nutritive Nectar and Discipline Keratine (both £19.50).

You have to think of these additions as primers for your blow-dry – generally, I’m a serum person through and through, but if I’m using a Kerastase Thermique, I don’t really need serum as well. The Kerastase Discipline range made such a difference to my frizz on a day to day basis that Keratine Thermique should be my natural choice, but I’ve leant more towards using Nutritive Nectar.

So, to highlight the differences between the three Thermiques: Discipline Keratine is for anti-frizz, Nutrative is for shine and Resistance is for split-ends and brittle hair. I’ve definitely seen a satisfying shine after using Nutrative, and I think a frizz reduction with Keratine (although our variable weather conditions are challenging for any products). Overall though, what I like best is the claim to reduce breakage by up to 85% and give heat protection. Kerastase Thermiques also claim to speed up your blow dry – which is interesting as I have only just realised this and had been wondering why my blow dries weren’t as torturously long as usual. So, that box is well and truly ticked!

These don’t launch on-line til 1st October, but you’ll be able to find them in Kerastase salons from now.

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I wont lie: this is a face scrub for people who are serious about scrubbing. It’s the closest you’d ever get, I’d imagine (and hope!), to using a power-sander on your face. It’s for those people who have the facial equivalent of a cast iron stomach. You know those people who can eat anything – extra-hot pork vindaloo, five-day-old prawns that have been left in the heat, “meat feast platters”, weird, stinky fruits, week-old leftovers? Well. Goldfaden MD’s Doctor’s Scrub Advanced is kind of like an extra-hot vindaloo. It’s hardcore. Effective – my skin was possibly the smoothest it’s ever been – but bloody hell is this scrub strong!

It’s perfectly obvious just from looking inside the pot that the Goldfaden MD scrub isn’t going to be a softly-softly wishy-washy approach to exfoliating: it looks and feels like something you’d spread onto metal before buffing it up with one of those noisy power tools. It’s just pure grit in there – nothing creamy or rose-scented, nothing to dilute the power or dull the shock. It’s exfoliant for the practised: just millions of finely-milled ruby crystals and a very small amount of this and that to help it slide across the skin. (Also, some hyaluronic acid for moisture and seaweed extract for a spot of anti-oxidant action.) A tiny amount of this potent little scrub will leave your entire face, neck and chest smooth and glowing – just take a small amount and spread it over the skin, working it in very gently indeed, moving in little circles with your fingertips. I’ll stress the “gently” part again: you need to work this in very gently.

What I like about this scrub is that it’s a very effective way of achieving instantly smooth and brighter skin. It’s not for the faint-hearted and it’s definitely not for sensitive skin, but on me it had the same results – perhaps better – than when I’ve gone for microdermabrasion as part of a facial. Granted, the microdermabrasion sessions I had were a good few years ago now, as I much prefer AHA exfoliation to manual scrubbing, but I found the machine-led treatments to be far too harsh and I was worried after one of them that I may have permanently damaged my skin! With the home scrub, you can control the intensity (GENTLE) and avoid any areas you might have concerns about (little broken veins at the sides of nose) and it’s just generally a more pleasant experience, I think. And skin is left just as soft, just as smooth…

The Advanced scrub contains 100% Ruby Crystals which apparently are the purest mineral crystals that can be applied directly to the skin. They supposedly have healing properties and because they are perfectly spherical, they exfoliate without tearing or scratching the surface of the skin. Perhaps that’s why I got on so well with this scrub, despite being initially petrified by it! There’s a downside, for those who are keen scrubbers and fancy a test: the Doctor’s Scrub Advanced costs £85 for a pot (see here). Though that’s still cheaper than the equivalent kind of facial, and I reckon you’d get at least a year or so out of one pot, so in terms of “per use” value, it’s actually very good. It’s probably the most condensed version of a scrub you can buy – you’re paying for the real goods, not a load of cream or oil or whatnot to dilute it.

If however, you did want the diluted version then the original Doctor’s Scrub is £65. This one has the ruby crystals mixed in with a creamy, fresh-smelling base so that the exfoliation is gentler and less of a shock to the system. This still left my skin incredibly smooth and I think that it would suit a wider audience*, but in terms of impressive results I do think that the Advanced just about pips it to the post.

What do you think about scrubs? I feel as though they have gone out of fashion, a bit, in favour of AHA peels and overnight acid exfoliants, but I must say that they do have an instant effect and, if you just want that “clean as a whistle” feeling, nothing seems to beat a bit of scrub action! Has anyone else tried these? Give me your scrub suggestions below – I’m on a bit of a roll with my testing at the moment!

You can find the Goldfaden MD scrub at SpaceNK here. Though there’s a very interesting SpaceNK offer next week, so if you’re thinking of indulging, hold your horses and wait for my update…

*Often people with spots and blemishes want to scrub the hell out of their faces. Personally, though many people say differently, I would avoid loads of scrubbing if I had a breakout. If my skin is angry and sore, the last thing I want to do is take a scrub to it – acid exfoliants yes, and especially things with salicylic acid present in the formula, but abrasive scrubs? No. That’s just my own preference. I love scrubs for brightening and both of these worked very well on my oily patches during “PMT week”, but I’d tread more carefully if you have active breakouts.

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