Category Archives: beauty look

Neroli and Orange Blossom: Take me to my Special Place!

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Neroli and Orange Blossom Scented Things

I adore the smell of both Neroli and Orange Blossom – they transport me to a calm, happy place. Ages ago I wrote about Charlotte Stockdale’s collection for Jo Malone, in which she brought to life some of the scents from her travels, scents that were special to her, and I mused over which particular fragrances would be my own special choices. Well: things with Neroli, things with Orange Blossom. I love Rose, and Oud & Bergamot is, I think, my number one “finished fragrance”, but when it comes to picking just one note, the heady and exotic Neroli wins every time.

Closely followed by Orange Blossom. Though often I find it difficult to tell the two apart. Which is kind of forgivable because they are, after all, extracted from exactly the same blossom. Just extracted in slightly different ways. Neroli, apparently, has a slightly sweeter (more honeyed) scent whereas Orange Blossom is perhaps lighter and more classically floral. I dunno. I find it difficult to separate the two, sometimes, as I’ve already mentioned. Anyway: let’s take a look at some gorgeous orangey-neroli-y beauty stuff…

The Firm & Revitalise Dry Body Oil from Aurelia, £48 from Cult Beauty here. Yes it’s pricey, but I do think that this is one of the very best body oils I’ve ever used. It’s just incredibly uplifting – the neroli blended with rose and with mandarin – and the oil formula leaves your skin silky smooth. I did a full review here, should you wish to have a read.

More body oil reviews…

Diptyque’s Fresh Lotion for the Body, £34 from Space NK here. Lighter and fresher in scent than Aurelia’s dry oil, this is the perfect post-beach body moisturiser. Soothing and cooling on the skin, this absorbs quickly and doesn’t leave any stickiness or greasiness, just a beautiful summery scent. There’s almost no need for a separate perfume.

The Mothers Massage Oil from Neal’s Yard Remedies, £19.50 here. A nourishing oil to keep pregnant and post-baby skin nice and supple, this has the best heady fragrance. Lots of people steer clear of overly-scented things during pregnancy (there were many products I had to avoid!) but I just found this massage oil to be so calming and relaxing. If I had a “special place” it would have taken me there. (Sidenote on this “special place” thing that all of the meditation apps go on about: does anyone else have trouble visualising a special place? For some reason, mine always seems to be this weird derelict house opposite my old school bus stop!)

More pregnancy beauty…

Queen of Hungary Mist from Omorovicza, £46 from Cult Beauty here. This is my ultimate, ultimate facial spritz and I must have reviewed it and mentioned it here on A Model Recommends and in interviews and magazine features about two dozen times. It’s more than just a spritz, for me – I take a small spray (shown in photo) on planes and trains and so on, and I use it to fragrance hotel rooms and pillows and unfamiliar bed linen. (Sounds dodgy: I’m merely referring to all of the linens I’ve encountered throughout my holiday-let-hopping period.) Think of it like a portable spa experience. In terms of actual beauty uses, I often spritz it after cleansing and before serum and repeatedly throughout the day if it’s hot or I’m stuck in front of the computer all day. It has the most deletable, delicate orange blossom scent and feels more hydrating on the skin than many other high-end facial sprays.

More orange blossom scented things…

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Pregnancy Beauty Tips for Glowing Skin…

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This video was originally entitled “Pregnancy Skincare Habits I’m Keeping!” but it was all a bit sensational and you know how I like to stay low-key… So we’re onto Pregnancy Beauty Tips for Glowing Skin, which is very accurate because my skin has been glowing like a beacon since Christmas, with not a blemish in sight. Of course that could be down to pregnancy hormones (I suspect much of it is) but there have been a few little tweaks I’ve made to my beauty regime, too, and I thought it would be remiss of me to not mention them.

You’ll notice that there’s a general gravitation towards more organic products and formulas that are perhaps more gentle and simple; this has been a subconscious decision, I feel, because there was never a moment when I thought well, I’m not putting THAT on my skin! At any rate, it hasn’t been a total switch – I’ve still used loads of hi-tech lotions and potions (see the serums I’ve included) and acid exfoliants and the whatnot. Just less than usual. I’m so interested to see which routine I’ll end up going back to once I’ve had Baby AMR, but I definitely think that the “habits” I’ve started during pregnancy will stay with me. The facial oils, the antioxidant serum, the more gentle formulas…

You can watch the video here or by clicking play below – all of the products mentioned are listed underneath the video pane. Obviously I haven’t included all of the gorgeously gentle skincare brands out there – please do browse the skincare section of this website for more ideas.

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Clinique Beyond Perfecting Foundation and Concealer Review

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foundation face makeup review

The Beyond Perfecting Foundation and Concealer from Clinique has seen some love here on the blog before, but it’s never had its own standalone review. So here we are – if you, like me, were disappointed with the new Superbalanced Silk Makeup (full review here) then this sort of levels things out. I’d plump for the Beyond Perfecting face base over the Superbalanced any day of the week.

Clinique Beyond Perfecting Foundation and Concealer Review

Reasons behind this statement? Firstly the coverage. Beyond Perfecting (the long glass bottles pictured above) has a good, high-pigment coverage that works over dark undereye circles and areas of redness as well as leaving a general, very satisfying evenness to the skintone, but it doesn’t look heavy or cakey. Compare that to the Superbalanced (short square bottle), which doesn’t do tremendously well coverage-wise but still manages to sit on my skin like some sort of evil flesh-coloured liquified ear-wax, and we have a clear winner.

Beyond Perfecting‘s texture is nicely lightweight, although nowhere near as light as something like Chanel’s Velvet or the dry-oil feel of Armani’s Maestro Glow. It’s a creamy-light. You can feel it going on and it needs proper blending (not just a slap-dash once-over with the fingertips) but it doesn’t sit heavily and I find it reasonably moisturising. Enough so that it doesn’t cause any problems with my flakey chin patch (don’t ask) or eternally parched forehead.

Clinique Beyond Perfecting Foundation and Concealer Review

I think that one of the standout points with Beyond Perfecting is the packaging – or at least the applicator. There’s a sort of doe-foot sponge applicator that turns the whole thing into a giant version of a concealer. You can use the side of the applicator to spread foundation onto the skin straight from the glass bottle (though not to blend it, I’ve tried!) and then it can be used more accurately to dot extra makeup where needed. Good for quick touch-ups, undereye concealing or, if you prefer a lighter-looking base, more targeted foundation application.

Clinique Beyond Perfecting Foundation and Concealer Review

Fancy some before-and-afters? Firstly, the skin from “afar” (two feet):

ruth crilly clinique foundation review

ruth crilly clinique foundation review

Note the general evenness in tone and the great cleanup job that it does on the darkness around my eyes. Everything looks a little fresher and more awake, which is always good news. Close-ups:

clinique beyond perfecting foundation review

clinique beyond perfecting foundation review

The makeup is virtually undetectable, but coverage is comprehensive. Precisely what so many of us are looking for in a base, really. You can see that the foundation comes up ever so slightly warm, in the pictures above – Clinique say “Due to the rich pigment level that enhances this flawless coverage makeup, shades may appear deeper when first applied. Leave the foundation to settle just for a few minutes, this will allow the high pigment in the formula to adapt to your skin tone which is why you get such a flawless perfected finish.” This is quite true, actually – I found that after five to ten minutes, the shade I used (01, Linen) was a perfect match.

Browse more foundation reviews…

In terms of finish, Clinique’s Beyond Perfecting doesn’t give me a mega-watt glow like Guerlain’s Lingerie de Peau, or a juicy sort of dewiness like the Fusion Ink from YSL, but it does make the skin look flawless (“beyond perfected”, I suppose you could say) without any hint of heavy-handedness.

ruth crilly clinique foundation review

And it’s not dull, by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps a little flatter than some of the super-powered glow-givers, but I’d say it does fairly decently in the luminosity department.

Thoughts? For me, this joins the likes of Dior’s Forever and Lancome’s Teint Idole Cushion in my “perfected skin” foundation arsenal. Both the Dior and Lancome have more glow (Lancome’s has more of a “juicy” finish, Dior’s is a sort of velvety-glow) but I think that Clinique’s Beyond Perfecting is an excellent choice. Loads of shades (21 at last count) and not too pricey at £25 for a 30ml bottle. Sits well on combination skin – drastically oily skin, I always think use an appropriate primer first whatever the face base.

Clinique’s Beyond Perfecting Foundation + Concealer is £25 online here.

The post Clinique Beyond Perfecting Foundation and Concealer Review appeared first on A Model Recommends.

© 2016 A Model Recommends®: all opinions are my own and any sponsored or paid posts will always be very clearly marked. I accept press samples and receive product and services to review as part of my job. Outward links to retailers will usually be affiliate links. Please see here for full “about” section and disclaimer.  A Model Recommends and Ruth Crilly are registered trademarks.

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Cyber Peach Lipstick, Take Two!

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Lola Matt Long Lasting Lipstick in Minx

Another bright, peachy lipstick for those of you who are looking for something pretty but borderline-neon for the spring. Last week I discovered Devon Sunset from Burberry; this week’s “cyber peach” is from a cosmetics brand called LOLA – you can find them at Marks and Spencer online.

ruth crilly model beauty bloger

“Minx” is a gorgeous, creamy peach lipstick with what I can only describe as a vibrant pastel finish. It’s described as a matt, long-lasting lipstick but in actual fact the texture is sumptuous and velvety – more of a demi-matte, really, if such a thing exists. At any rate, it’s quite a nice alternative to the Burberry Kisses Devon Sunset, if you want to halve your spend but get the same kind of peachy colour shock. This one is far more opaque, so you can’t sheer it out or build it up like you can with Burberry’s Kisses lipsticks, but with such a vibrant shade you’d probably want to “go in strong” anyway…

Burberry Kisses review…

LOLA’s Minx (shade 105) is online at Marks and Spencer here. It costs £12. (Note: the shade shown online bears absolutely no resemblance to the lipstick in real life.) (Other note: yes I HAVE had my hair done! Thank you for asking – I’ll tell you all about it in Sunday’s post!)

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Sunday Tittle Tattle: Goodbye Greece

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ruth crilly model greece

Time for me to leave Greece, today. I’ve had such an amazing week, exploring the Peloponnese and lying by the sea and drinking lovely local wine. Now I need to start writing it all up – food, sightseeing, accommodation and all! I hope you’ve all had good weeks, wherever you’ve been – normal website service resumes on Tuesday, so I will catch up with everything then. For now, yia sas!

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