There I was on Net-a-Porter, minding my own business (fantasy window-shopping for outrageously expensive dresses), when a whole load of very glam-looking clothes popped up with prices that were so unusually low, I thought that there had been a mistake. Dresses for £50! You can’t buy a pair of socks on Net-a-Porter for fifty quid! It turns out that it was the new Altuzarra for Target collection that has launched in the states (at Target, obviously) but that has also been picked up by Net-a-Porter. And so I thought that it would be rude not to at least try some of the collection, and promptly added two dresses and a faux-fur jacket to my shopping basket.

A few gripes: a $49.99 dress costs £50 on Net-a-Porter. Now I’m not an exchange rate expert but I’m pretty sure that the sterling price should be lower, so… Also, this is not designer-quality merchandise we’re talking about here – the coat has something of an..er..electrical quality to it and the python print dress that I chose is a bit flimsy. I think that Topshop is probably better quality, though the faux-fur jacket has the most wonderful wide shoulders and film-star kind of cut. I’m going to sit on the faux-fur for a few days and decide whether to keep it. (Not literally sit on it, you understand, it’s a figure of speech.)

One thing that I love, however, is the rather bizarre “half work shirt, half siren python-skin skirt” hybrid dress (find it here). Something about it is so very wrong, but when I put it on it was just so very, very right. Flattering, cut exactly to my waist and hips so that it seemed very tailored and, though the fabrics aren’t the kind of thing you’d find in a high-end store, it looked good, I thought. It’s a keeper. There’s something about it that’s very Sexy Secretary, a bit Clark Kent if he was a woman. (On the top half, she was a straight-laced newspaper clerk, on the bottom half, she was SEX WOMAN!)

You can find the Altuzarra for Target range at Net-a-Porter here – let me know if you snap anything up. I wanted a belt, but they sold out almost the minute they landed online.

(For your reference: I bought the dress in the photos in a size 4 – it’s snug, but it fits well. I am a definite UK 10, not a UK 8. The fur comes up small – I bought size small and it only just closes. The snakeskin dress here is too small for me, I needed a US6 but bought a US4.)

Continue reading →

Finally, glittery nail polishes I can actually wear! I usually shun glitter because taking it off is one of the worst, most thankless beauty tasks ever invented. I would honestly rather go to the dentist than remove glitter polish. I’d rather wash up the trays and shelves from inside the oven, and we all know what a crap job that is.

Anyway, back to my point: glitter polishes that don’t make me want to pull out my eyeballs with a pair of hot tweezers when it comes to removal time. And I am so, so glad that they are from one of my all-time favourite nail brands, KURE Bazaar. KURE make their polishes from non-toxic ingredients such as corn, potatoes, cotton and wheat and the formulas are up to 85% natural. But there’s no compromise on quality – the colours apply beautifully and last reasonably well. I say reasonably, because I get really bored of my nails being painted (weirdly) and usually remove my polish after a couple of days, even if it isn’t chipped! Strange quirk that I have…

There are fifteen new glitter polishes from KURE – I have Diva, Precious and the special peel-off base coat. Precious (here) is a fine gold glitter and this looked brilliant after two coats – I expect it would look even more stunning over a metallic gold base or even a bright red base, but I was testing out over the peel-off. Still, it was incredibly sparkly and dense with glitter bits! Diva is a chunkier, rose-gold glitter and looks really good, but I found it more difficult to build up than Precious, so I think that the finer glitters would be my choice.

The peel-off base coat worked stupendously. It didn’t peel off until I wanted it to, so it’s not like one of those kid’s “play polishes”, but when it was time to take off the glitter it was easy (and very satisfying) to remove. I treated my nails to a bit of an oil massage afterwards, because I felt I deserved it seeing as though I’d just saved myself about fifty minutes of hard beauty labour. Continue reading →

Have you ever wondered how the makeup magicians at Benefit dream up fabulous new products? They always seem to have some amazing new instant beauty solution up their sleeve. Our latest obsession is majorette, and we’ve been DYING to know how they came up with the idea. Seriously, a cream-to-powder booster blush!? We thought Benefit only did tints & box o’ powders! To satisfy our curiosity, let the investigation with our product development team begin…

First, we hunted down one of the masterminds behind it all: Cierra, a product development wizard. We know by now that nothing happens by mistake at Benefit—there’s always a backstory, and the story of majorette goes all the way back to our founding twins, Jean & Jane!

The product development gals were digging around at Beauty Central, and spotted an old snapshot of young Jean & Jane dressed as majorettes. They got SO excited that they started marching around in an impromptu majorette routine (#lifeatbenefit), and they all got super-flushed from the excitement. Thus, the idea of majorette was born: an instant pep-up for your cheeks!

They wanted something different than a traditional box o’ powder, something that could pep-up the box o’ powders that you already own! A booster blush! Cierra explained that they went for the peachy-pink shade after spending quite some time searching for a flush that’s flattering on everyone & works with a wide range of powders. (Her fave powder to layer over majorette? Rockateur!)

Once the formula was developed, they moved into the art side of things. The packaging concept was simple for the artists: it simply had to be a majorette’s drum! They went for a vintage look, using the gold foil elements to glam it up, and chose to scallop the edges in that gorgeous coral to echo the shade of the blush within.

We’re totally geeking out over our behind-the-scenes look at majorette, and we can’t wait to learn the backstory on more of our faves. What product do you want the behind-the-scenes scoop on? Let us know on Twitter @benefitbeauty!

Continue reading →