Eve Lom Powder Foundation Brush

Ever since the handle of my Sigma F80 Flat Top Kabuki Brush decided to depart from its brush head totally and irrevocably, I felt the need for something to replace it. 

And I plumped for this, the Eve Lom Powder Foundation Brush.

This is a lovely, lovely brush. It has substance in the hand, so that I find I can buff it around my face without it skidding all over the place. The bristles are densely packed and very soft. 
What I particularly like is the fact that this brush does not hang on to the product, but deposits it around the face evenly.

Currently £38, not cheap but frankly I am over cheap brushes.

Cane + Austin Ultra Sheer Weightless Sunscreen SPF 50

Trying to encourage one's nearest and dearest to sun protect is not easy. My husband is not quite of the Gene Hunt generation but is forgetful, skin care is as interesting to him as sheds are to me - not on my radar unless they get in the way when I venture into the garden, just as my pots of unguents get in the way of where he puts his razor.

He is also blessed with the sort of skin which does not seem to age in the discolouration stakes, a few wrinkles but even toned from forehead to neck.

I wanted to encourage him to use a sunscreen and hit on this one because it is high protection and very light in texture. I also thought that the packaging would appeal. 

This really is extremely light in texture, almost like milk. No jarring scent. It spreads easily and sinks in quickly.

Amazingly since I bought this for him, he has used it every day. A first for any product.

Currently £35 for 59.1mls from SpaceNK

Eve Lom Radiance Perfected Tinted Moisturiser Alabaster 1 and Ivory 2

Okay, so I am following on on a bit of a theme, warmer weather means a lighter base and I thought I would look at what I already have rather than lust after something new.

I swatched this tinted moisturiser in SpaceNK and was impressed that the coverage was signficant and the texture and feel was, well I hesitate to say "nice" because that is such a bland catch all sort of adjective, I suppose what I mean was that once swatched the texture was cooling and comfortable on the skin and I liked that the shades were neutral enough.

I liked the swatches so much that I went on to purchase.

I like the packaging - squeezy tube with a narrow nozzle allows for accuracy, I find pumps can fail.

So Alabaster 01 on the top and Ivory 02 on the bottom.

The shades are neutral enough to my eye. I really struggle with shade matching and have shoved my wrists under the noses of my OH and my eldest son on numerous occasions crying plaintively "blue or green?" - not without reason, my OH teaches GCSE and A-Level Art and my son has a degree in Fine Art - and both favour neutral, so these shades pull neither too warm or too cool.

The coverage for a TM is considerable, but I like that - my skin needs all the help it can get.

What I particularly like about this product is that it wears off evenly, I get shiney throughout the day, but it behaves like skin if that makes sense, I end up with shiney but evened out skin. It is still there at the end of the day.

Currently £48 for 50mls. 

Zelens Age Proof Foundation Cameo and Porcelain

I do not need a new foundation or base, but I wanted to try the new Age Proof Foundation from Zelens. At £65 I did not feel that I could just go out and purchase, so I contacted SpaceNK and asked if they would send me some samples.....and they did.

What suprised me was how much of a difference there was between these two shades which are the palest shades.
Cameo on the left is distinctly more yellow in tone and is paler than Porcelain on the right which is a darker, pinker, putty sort of a shade.

This is a densely pigmented foundation, and a little does go a long way. There is a creaminess to the texture and application, it does not settle into my pores unless I go a bit heavy handed. 

The wear is good, in that it is still apparent on the face cloth at the end of the day. My only concern with this foundation is what I judge every foundation on and which really is the bottom line - the shade.

As can be seen below there is for me too much of a difference between Cameo at the top and Porcelain at the bottom. When I apply them to my skin, Cameo is too yellow for me and Porcelain is too dark.

This is currently £65 for 30mls, it is definitely worth asking for samples from SpaceNK either on line or instore.

Aurelia Monday to Sunday Bamboo Muslins

I like these so much that I bought two boxes. When one purchases Aurelia's Miracle Cleanser, there is a bamboo muslin included, and although I had several, having purchased the miracle cleanser regularly, these cloths have to be the most gentle but the most effective face cloths I have used.

Beautifully presented in a hard flat box. The size and look of a man's handkerchief, these are deceptive in appearance, once wet they become somewhat flimsy and wafty, but they really pack a punch in the removal stakes, and their size and lightness of material makes them extremely easy to get into the nooks and crannies of my face which become deeper and more crevice like with every passing year.

Currently £18 for seven.

Lipstick Queen Frog Prince

I bought this on a whim as per. I have enjoyed so much every lipstick which I have purchased from this range, I particularly like the fact that there is no taste and no scent.

There is no getting away from it, this lipstick is green, swamp, river weed green. But as can be seen from my slightly rubbish photos, this has been worn, and worn in the brief time that I have had it, because this is a magic lipstick which transforms into an individually flattering pink.

Now I search and search for a MLBB shade, and cannot find one, too red, too pink, too orange, too peach. This seems to give my lips back their pigmentation and nothing more.

So naked lips below with some weird brown crumby bits - I swear I was not chomping on chocolate pre post.

My lips have that lived in worn out look, dehydrated. The sort of lips which mean that complete strangers ask you if you are okay, and colleagues ask you if you aren't coming down with something.

LQ Frog Prince applied below, colour and pigment and moisture.

This is currently £20 from SpaceNK.

I particularly like the frog.

MAC Eye Kohl in Powersurge

I don't do eye makeup. It is sad really, but from a very early first foray into makeup, I realised that my eyelids had not the space or the tautness for blending and brushes and colour and butterfly wings shimmer.

However I need something to make me look frankly as if I can be arsed, hence this eye pencil.

MAC eye kohl in "powersurge" is a neutral bronzey goldy green colour. It has the briefest of gleam.

I first came across it on MUA where its reviews were legion I tend to use it on the upper eyelid but close to the lash line, I have even managed to smudge it on the lower lash line without ill effect.

I find that it is a bit like a MLBB shade of lipstick - although where the heck one finds one of those I don't know as I am still searching after some thirty-five years - but a MEBB shade of eye pencil, it just makes my eyes look better, more awake.

A new unsullied pencil is never too far away.

Currently around £14

A few treatment toners

I have embraced the treatment toner trend as can be seen from the above collection. I am not a beauty expert, I have no interest in skin other than my own, but I am an enthusiastic amateur, I love a trend and a bandwagon, especially when I can see visible differences in my skin. And the addition of a treatment toner has changed my skin; pores are less visible, skin is more even toned, red marks which are remnants of spots I have shamelessly squeezed, take less time to heal than previously.

I started with Alpha H Liquid Gold - being a watcher of QVC, I was familiar with this product but did not feel it was for me given that on a previous trial it tingled on application and with a sensitive skin I felt that tingling was not something I wanted anywhere near my skin thank-you very much.

However I re-purchased and realised that the tingling was tingling and not stinging, and after using and seeing some changes I was hooked.

My guiding hand in all of this is Caroline Hirons, she has made videos,  and more videos and posted valuable information on these products and how best to use them.

What I have found is that for me on my skin, some products do sting rather than tingle, but not every time. I have found that some products have a smell which I dislike. Some are ineffective on my skin and this is irrespective of price.

All of the above toners I have used - I find that I tend to use them pm rather than am because I have more time, and I am a saddo who rarely ventures out after the hours of 6.00pm. I use them post cleansing and allow to skin in or at times pat any remaining wetness into my skin with my hands. I then follow with a "floral water" type of toner, again patting into my skin to aid absorbtion and then I go on with a serum and facial oil and moisturiser.

MOA The Green Balm Cleansing Ritual

I enjoy a good cleansing balm and this one found its way into my online basket after reading an informative review from beautybythegeeks - I was attracted to it because it is relatively inexpensive, around £10 for 50mls, and the ingredients list is small and isn't full of essential oils - I like essential oils but some can be rather pungent.

The kit which I purchased comes with a bamboo muslin pictured below - dense and beautifully soft, I'm afraid I ditched the cloth on first use because it was a little too gentle for my liking.

The balm itself is a thick waxy balm, slightly medicinal in scent and gently green in colour, it is most definitely a dry skin, dry hands massage, and a hot cloth removal. It will not emulsify if water is added.

It removes all my makeup and my eye makeup (of which I admit I use little) without irritation, and I enjoy using it, which is half the battle. I enjoy the scent, I enjoy the texture and I enjoy how it leaves my skin.

Ingredients: Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Glycine Soja (Soy Bean) Oil, Cera Alba (Beeswax), Achillea Millefolium (Yarrow) Extract, Aqua Purificata (Water), Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Ol, Chlorophyll, Limonene

Currently the Cleansing Ritual Kit is around £15 for a cloth and a 50mls pot, a pot on its own is around £10 and currently that is the largest pot they do. 

Available from Feelunique and Cultbeauty amongst other outlets.

Aurelia Refine & Polish Miracle Balm

So I like this so much that I have purchased a second, and there is still life left in the first.

This is a hard to define product, it is an exfoliator, and a mask, but giving it those names suggests textures and useage which to my mind belie the hidden gemness of it. I will settle for calling it a treatment.

Housed in a squeezy tube, this is the texture and shade of a rich golden honey, it is sticky and soft with a gentle rush of eucalyptus, if eucalyptus can ever be described as gentle - I suppose what I mean is that it is not a "clear the sinuses" sort of eucalyptus.

I like to use this applied to clean dry skin, massage in, leave, and then remove. It is extremely gentle as an exfoliant, but could be rendered gentler with the addition of water, for it does emulsify as can be seen below.

The ingredients are listed below.

This is currently £57 for 75mls, from SpaceNK and from the Aurelia website.

MV Organic Skincare Gentle Cream Cleanser

Another day, another am cleanser. This is the Gentle Cream Cleanser from MV Organic Skincare, an Australian brand which I stumbled upon after reading this post by Sali Hughes, and I love a good organic skincare range, and the idea of rich and unctuous appealed, my skin maybe oiler but it is thin and ageing and reactive and sometimes all it wants is uncomplicated comfort.

This 70ml cleanser came as part of a travel set which had an offer on at the time on Cult Beauty, and in the set were the 70mls cleanser, 70mls of the Rose Hydrating Mist and 70mls of the Rose Soothing Protective Moisturiser.

The texture is delightfully thick, obviously not so thick that it cannot be pumped out but it comes out in a satifying dollop.

And it is beautifully soothing and comforting. The scent has some rose but it is more gently citrus to me, I have used it to remove makeup and it does that with a second pass, but it is more an am cleanser for me. I like to apply dry hands dry face, massage in to allow to sink in which is does, and then to re-activate with the addition of some water, massage again and then remove with a cloth of some sort. 

I have gone on to purchase the 120mls size.

Now in the kit was a little tool to enable one to get the last dregs of product out when the pump no longer works, and this is a godsend to all products with pumps. I hate products with pumps because invariably they cease to work with a good couple of days worth of product left - this little tool is perfect, and effective.

Ingredients - Water, Camellia (Camellia Oleifera) Oil, Ceteary Glucoside, Cetearyl Alcohol, Vegetable Glycerin, Olive (Olea Europaea) Fruit Oil, Coconut (Cocos Nucifera) Oil, Glyceryl Stearate, Vitamin E non GM (Tocopherol), Honeysuckle (Lonicera Caprifolium) Flower Extract, Honeysuckle (Lonicera Japonica) Flower Extract, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Sorbate, with essential oils of mandarin, chamomile and rose geranium.

£34.50 for 70mls or £54 for 120mls

Omorovicza Rose Lifting Serum and Radiance Renewal Serum

I have come to the end of these two serums from Omorovicza. I have a few products that I have purchased from Omorovicza, which is a higher price range than what I can afford on a day to day basis, but the textures and scents are sublime and with a judicious use of discount codes and present requests I have been able to explore the range a little.

If one purchases from the website there is always a choice of sample sachets which although are too small to see any effect on the skin, give enough to decide whether texture and scent are pleasing enough to consider a full size purchase.

So I have used the Radiance Renewal Serum am and the Rose Lifting Serum pm. 

They are incredibly light in texture and very "wet" if that makes sense, I suppose really serums are meant to be light and wet, with a texture which allows for easy spread around the face but not for full on massage so that the ingredients can sink into the skin.

Photographed below one can see the texture, the Rose Lifting serum is marginally thicker but it is marginal.

I have tried to show the slight pink sparkliness which is the pro ruby crystals as one of the key ingredients in the Rose Lifting Serum.

These are undoubtedly very lovely products, they are light, instantly hydrating and easily absorbed. 

They are housed in heavy glass bottles with lockable functioning pumps, with a gentle scent which does not irritate or jar.

There is a little pilling of subsequent products in the morning but given that I am applying sunscreen, serum, and moisturiser as well as primer and foundation that is hardly suprising, it is minimal and I can live with it. 

Rose Lifting Serum ingredients:
Aqua (Hungarian Thermal Water), Glycerin, Corundum (Pro Ruby Crystal), Phospholipids, Alcohol, Phenoxyethanol, Pullulan, Saccharomyces (Hungarian Thermal Water) Ferment Extract, Carbomer, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Mica, Sodium Hydroxide, Xanthan Gum, Disodium EDTA, Ethylhexylglycerin, Chlorella Vulgaris/Lupinus Albus Protein Ferment, Pectin, Silica, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-5, Tripleurospermum Maritima (Sea Mayweed) Extract, Rosa Damascena Flower Extract, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Flower Extract, Sorbic Acid, Dextran, Caprooyl Tetrapeptide-3, Linalool, Geraniol, Citronellol.

Radiance Renewal Serum ingredients:
Aqua (Hungarian Thermal Water), Glycerin, Saccharomyces (Hungarian Thermal Water) Ferment Extract, Alcohol Denat., Mannitol, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Hyaluronate, Niacinamide, Benzyl Alcohol, Carbomer, Zinc PCA, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Sodium Hydroxide, Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Disodium EDTA, Chlorella Vulgaris/ Lupinus Albus Protein Ferment, Nasturtium Officinale Flower/Leaf Extract, Phospholipids, Yeast Extract, Xanthan Gum, Dehydroacetic Acid, Pectin, Parfum (Fragrance), Linalool, Limonene, Eugenol, Geraniol, Citronellol, Benzyl Benzoate.

If my budget allowed I would repurchase these, they are £80 and £75 respectively for 30mls, and the pump pumps out a very little amount although amply sufficient, which means that these have both lasted me a good five and half months of daily use.

BECCA Foundation Brush #102

I need a new foundation brush like a hole in the head, but my current foundation of choice is BECCA Ultimate Complexion Foundation and after seeing Alex Byrne apply it with this brush, I felt compelled to buy.

This is a small, densely packed synthetic brush. The fibres are quite firm, and it is more akin to a flat foundation brush but in a more 3D form if that makes sense. It picks up enough product without absorbing the product, and the small pointed head makes for accuracy in application. I find that it is particularly good at stippling product into the skin in order to minimise my pores.

I have photographed it next to the Sigma F180 from the side.

And from above.

I bought this from SpaceNK for £33.

Rodial Stem Cell Super-Food Glam Balm Multi Free with May 2015 Red Magazine

I love a good multi-purpose balm, in a tube, to use as a sort of souped up vaseline, with added benefits.

This apparently has 100 different ways in which to use, ranging from a night-cream to a lip balm, to an eye mask, to a primer to a cuticle conditioner and the rest.

It is a gel balm which can be squeezed out of a tube rather than a balm which needs to be scooped out of a jar although I would suggest one shakes the tube prior to squeezing otherwise one will experience some separation of product.

I have used it as a cuticle conditioner, and an eye balm and have been pleased with both the application of product - it sinks in but leaves sufficient residue to afford some protection/condition. I am less enamoured of its efficacy as a lip balm more because it has an albeit mild rose scent and that makes me heave somewhat. 

• Ingredients: Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Cera Alba (Beeswax), Cyclopentasiloxane, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Aqua (Water), Oryza Sativa (Rice) Germ/Bran Oil, Cyclohexasiloxane, Rosa Canina Fruit Oil, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Dimethiconol, Benzyl Alcohol, Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract, Salicylic Acid, Tocopheryl Acetate, Parfum (Fragrance), Punica Granatum (Pomegranate) Extract, Menthyl PCA, Rosa Multiflora Cera, Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate, Mica, Silica Dimethyl Silylate, Tocopherol, Caprylyl Glycol, Butylene Glycol, Isomalt, Sodium Hyaluronate, Phenoxyethanol, Hexylene Glycol, Rhododendron Ferrugineum Leaf Cell Culture Extract, Lecithin, Sodium Benzoate, Lactic Acid, CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), CI 75470 (Carmine), Aplha-Isomethylionone, Citronellol, Geraniol, Limonene.
• The full 40mls is £35 - this is 25mls