Category Archives: beauty products

The EcoTools Brush Roll falls into the category of ‘This Is Helpful’ when it come to beauty tools. but also ‘This Isn’t Pretty’ in the same category. Brush rolls are marvellous things for keeping brushes clean and tidy – the best thing about the the EcoTools Brush Roll is that inside the comparments are labelled….

..so you never need to hunt around for individual brushes. I have some of my brushes in the Paul & Joe brush holder, which I love, but the rest are in rather a muddle in a drawer – if you’re tidy minded about your brushes, then the roll is a godsend. It’s also a bonus that you get a brush to either start your brush set or add to. But, the roll itself isn’t beautiful and neither is it particularly well made, never mind that it’s a dull brown colour. When I think of EcoTools I think fresh and bright, but this is a bit, er, depressing! Green? Orange, maybe?

It’s £9.99, launching in June.

The post EcoTools Brush Roll appeared first on British Beauty Blogger.

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Here we are once more; monthly favourites. I have Caroline Hirons with me again so you’ll need to prepare yourself for a fair amount of chatting. In Caroline’s skincare video, at any rate – I edited the makeup video down from thirty-two minutes to about nine, but Caroline has gone for the director’s cut and published something that’s not far off a feature-length movie. Ha! If I were you, I’d grab a glass of wine (but not if it’s still breakfast time) (and not if you’re at work) and make yourself comfy. Perhaps have a little plate of olives to hand? Some breadsticks maybe?

Whatever nibbles and beverage combo you end up going for, you may want to have a notebook ready because there are some gems in these videos. I’ll paste the makeup links below the videos, but for the skincare credits you just need to click through to Youtube at the bottom left hand corner of the video. Enjoy!

Clarins Tinted Moisturiser – I use shade 1: http://tidd.ly/8a694806

Clarins Brow Kit: http://tidd.ly/1f47ced2

PAM London Jan Sewell Makeup – sorry, can’t find this but leave a comment for Caroline and I’m sure she’ll enlighten us!

Becca Shadow and Light, launches 14th August. Pre-order:http://goo.gl/Y5O1YV

Real Techniques Dual Fibre Brush: http://tinyurl.com/oeh33qj

New CID i_glow in Coral Crush: http://tinyurl.com/p2cq5r9

Bourjois Creme Blush in Shade 1, Nude Velvet:http://tidd.ly/f50c7491

Bobbi Brown Palette in Surf & Sand: http://rstyle.me/n/mm3hct6a6

Lancome Grandiose Mascara: http://rstyle.me/n/m63rkt6a6

Urban Decay Subversion and Perversion Mascaras:http://tidd.ly/4d221bc2

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There are two ways of looking at Guerlain’s “Terracotta Joli Teint Healthy Glow Powder Duo” (longest product name in the world, and breathe): either it’s a finishing powder that you sweep over your skin to warm it up and add that final layer of faked “rude health”, or – if you have particularly fair skin – it’s the perfect subtle bronzer for all-year-round bronzing. On me, with my fair-medium skintone, the Joli Teint powder works in much the same way that Chanel’s Les Beiges does: the effect is almost imperceptible, at first, but then after a few goes with the powder brush there’s a noticeable change in tone and glow. It’s not shimmer, it’s not colour, it’s just…a kind of healthiness.

Many people will see these types of powders as being rather pointless; they either want to bronze themselves or not. They want to finish with a powder that will keep shine away, or not. If they want to add a subtle hint of blush then they’ll do so, and they’ll do it with their blusher, thank you ever so much. Something that’s so subtle you can hardly tell that it’s there is many people’s idea of a total waste of time. However, I will say that I use my Chanel Les Beiges powder on an almost daily basis and it does have an effect: just one that you can’t quite put your finger on.

Chanel Les Beiges video review…

The Guerlain Terracotta Joli Teint Powder Duo is very similar, but with an added crescent of pinky powder to mimic that “lightly sunkissed” effect. I have the very palest shade (00) and could probably, in all honesty, do with a tad darker, but have a look and see what you think. Here I am with just foundation (actually BB Cream, it’s the Precious one from l’Occitane, shade 02):

The skin looks fine, but see how the Joli Teint peps things up a bit in the next photo.

It’s just like a very subtle injection of life, isn’t it? A day spent outdoors tending to the flower beds, or what have you. (Does anyone actually do that? The moment the sun comes out I’m usually flat out on a towel with my eyes closed! Sod the flowers.) Unless I’m going completely and utterly bonkers, there is a definite difference. Actually more so than you get with Chanel’s powders, I think, but mainly because with Les Beiges you match the powder to your skintone, so it has less of a hue to it, more of a glow. (You can go a shade or two down, to get that pale-bronze effect, but I’m not sure it’s as warming and summery as this Guerlain gem.)

Read about the best nude makeup products…

And so: one person’s pointless is another’s treasure, or whatever the saying is. There are those who see no point in any of the subtle no-makeup makeup products on the market, but then there are others (me included) who bloody love them for their natural finishes. And also the fact that it’s very hard to overdo it with these types of “barely there” cosmetics – you’d have to be some kind of demented brush-wielder to get this powder wrong. It’s utterly, utterly foolproof.

You can find all four shades of the Guerlain Terracotta Joli Teint Healthy Glow Powder Duo (*takes a nap*) on Escentual.com here – they cost £31.95 each.

The post Healthy Glow Makeup: Guerlain’s Joli Teint Powder appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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This post should probably be over on my pregnancy blog, The Uphill, but I know how many of you follow Caroline and I didn’t want you to miss out! Though please do feel free to skip this one if you have no interest whatsoever in pregnancy. Or birthing. It was just a casual pregnancy chat between friends, really, with the usual eyebrow-raises and sick-making faces that happen when Caroline and I get together…

Watch more videos with Caroline…

On the subject of pregnancy: I have so many posts to write and only ten weeks to go until my due date! Time has just flown. Hopefully once I get my accommodation situation sorted I’ll have the mental and emotional energy to sit down and do some proper writing-up. At the moment, 80% of my time is spent trying to find holiday lets that a) have internet b) accept dogs and c) are within a twenty mile radius of my house. There is nothing. Nothing, I tell you… If anyone ever wants a sound financial investment, buy and then rent out a flat or holiday cottage in the Hertfordshire/Essex area – one that has high-speed broadband and takes dogs. You’d absolutely clean up.

The post Birthing and Pregnancy Chat with Caroline Hirons… appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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1) I was temporarily reunited with Mr Bear this weekend when I went up to visit my parents. He spent much of the time looking incredibly grumpy and the rest of it sleeping. Though when I think back, those are his usual default modes, really, so I mustn’t get paranoid about it! We had a good few cuddles, too, and he jumped on my face at 7am and headbutted me so hard I thought that he might have broken my nose. Happy days – I can’t wait until he’s home for good, though I think that my parents will miss him. They have turned into fully-fledged crazy cat people, carrying him around in shopping bags and “conversing with him” using a little series of squeaks and miaows…

2) I do hope that everyone is doing something nice over the Easter weekend; my idea of nice, at the moment, is lying in a pile of big cushions with a face mask on and my feet raised, reading my Kindle. I’m currently reading The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Simon Mawer (£4.31 on Amazon here) because my Mum recommended it to me. It’s very good – as is The Glass Room, also by Mawer (find that here). Both set in World War 2, but very different books – The Girl Who Fell follows a spy-in-the-making who parachutes into France to deliver a special message to her ex-crush, and The Glass Room follows the story of a house – built for newlyweds but then occupied by many different people once the Jewish family are forced to flee and the World War takes grip on the country. Great (if poignant and sometimes sad) reads. I must do a big book update soon because I’ve been racing through them recently! Enjoy your long weekend – if you’re bored and stuck for something to do, you can read all of the previous Sunday Tittle Tattle posts here! 

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