Redken No Blow Dry

If you saw Sam’s tutorial last week on how she styles her hair then you may be keen to get your hands on the main product that she uses.

 After her visit to Josh Wood Atelier, she has found the Redken No Blow Dry products are a  godsend when you’re short on time or energy!

If you are someone who either hates washing their hair, because frankly who has the time or if you just prefer not to heat style your hair then you will love these treatments.

Redken has recently launched their No Blow Dry range, which is designed to be used with no heat styling (although you can if you want to).

 Often when you use products in your hair and then let the hair air dry naturally you find that the hair feels crispy of has an uneven texture.

 These new creams from Redken are specifically formulated to be twisted into wet/damp hair and left to work their magic.

These air stylers will provide effortless texture, allow movement and control frizz with minimal effort.

 Available in three creams depending on your hair thickness.

 Select Airy cream for a fine hair, just right cream for medium hair and Bossy cream for coarse or thick hair.

You can see how Sam’s hairdresser uses the product through the hair in the tutorial, which is linked below.

 Redken No Blow Dry is available now here for  £17.50 each.

Filorga BB-Perfect

BB creams are great for those who want a sheer base that evens skin tone without masking the skin or providing a huge amount of coverage. Great for a sensitive or reactive skin that tends to redden after a glass of wine or after exposure to the environment.

We have been testing out Filorga BB-Perfect this week. Firstly I like the packaging. A 30ml flexible tube with pump action application. Great for shoving in your cosmetic bag when travelling.

 This particular BB cream is targeted toward those who are seeing the development of fine lines or those with an aging skin.

What’s in it?

Active ingredients, which promotes skin healing and calms a red or irritated skin. It has an SPF 15 and uses specialist pigments, which melt into the skin providing a smoothed and fresh complexion.

The finish

A balmy, very radiant finish that feels cushioned and hydrated. Darker skin imperfections still show through this cover but it definitely provides a smoother finish. If you’re concerned about areas that need a little extra cover then apply a separate concealer on top in the specific areas.

My skin is combination and I found it shifted in the centre of the face by lunchtime so I would say this would be a better product for a dry and mature skin type.

Sadly only available in three shades which would be suitable for a light to medium skin tone.

We have two shades to share with you.

Filorga BB cream is £35.00 and available here.

The Beautiful Escape travel collection

Finally Estee Lauder have grouped together all of their iconic products and popped them into a beautiful tropical leaf print bag all ready for your next trip away.

Featuring some of your must have basic items to get you through trip this limited edition travel set features 7 mini skin and hair products and 1 full size mascara.

 So what’s inside….

The Estee edit Dissolve the drama-15ml

15ml oil based cleanser that will lift off even the heaviest makeup along with waterproof liner and mascara.

Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair-7ml

Cult restorative serum, which helps repair and renew damaged or aging skin. If you have never tried this then now’s your opportunity!

Clinique Pep Start eye cream-3ml

Cooling touch eye cream making it a great choice when in a hot country. De puffs and freshens the skin.

Origins Drink up Intensive-30ml

Rich cream mask that you can layer on before you slip into bed and wake with a hydrated and replenished skin.

Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer-7.1ml

One of our all time favourite primers and a product, which we always advise to brides who need longevity from their base.

Bobbi Brown long-wear cream shadow

A cream stick eye shadow in a metallic shimmery soft apricot/pink. Would be suitable for all fair to medium skin tones and would be a beautiful highlighting product on a deeper skin tone.

Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray-50ml

Salt spray which gives texture and volume to flat hair. Great to have in your bag to give your hair a little oomph whilst you’re out and about.

MAC In Extreme Dimension 3d Black Mascara-Full Size

A whipped creamy texture in carbon black on a plastic wand filled with fine flexible teeth. Great for both volume and definition.

The Beautiful Escape collection is limited edition and available from Monday 31st July 2017 from each of the brands websites. It is £25.00 but worth £73.00 based on price per ml of full price.

Within the giftbag there is also a description card detailing information about each product and also a discount code to use when next shopping each brand.

 

Cruelty Free Makeup Tutorial

Tan-Luxe Sleep Oil

More than anything I love products that work for me whilst I’m sleeping, which is my most favourite thing to do!

 You know the fail-safe products you can slap on with little care or attention. The ones where you wake up forgetting you ever applied them until you look in the mirror and think you actually look all right!

 I had heard about Tan-Luxe after Amy in the office had purchased on a whim but was excited to test out for myself.

 The brand was developed by beauty entrepreneur Marc Elrick and hairdresser husband Dylan who together own a hair salon in Glasgow. After years of chat with clients regarding epic tanning fails and distaste for the classic biscuit scents they set about developing a tanning brand that would deliver a no fuss tan that was completely customisable.

We have a few of the Tan-Luxe products to test out over the next few weeks but recently I have been using the Sleep oil.

 Sleep oil immediately got me excited to wash my face and get ready for bed!

The ethos behind the brand is combining skin caring benefits with self-tan to ensure your skin is stimulated, hydrated and rejuvenated overnight, all with the added benefit of a tint of tan.

It contains no parabens, mineral oils or sulfates and best of all it has no stinky aroma as it uses an odourlite fragrance technology. It’s actually one of the first self-tan's that actually smells nice; you actually enjoy being able to detect it on your skin.

All you need to do is cleanse your face as normal and then apply 6-10 drops, via the pipette applicator, depending on the depth of colour you desire.

 The oil feels totally comfortable on the skin and just feels like you are applying a regular oil based moisturiser. It’s a total luxury to wear.

On waking, I had a very subtle tint of tan to the skin. Nothing hugely obvious. My skin just looked refreshed in the way that it does after your first day in the sun on holiday.

You could use multiple times in the week to up the tan depth and if you decide that once is enough then it gradually fades away during the week with no patchiness or streaking. It also doesn’t stain your bed sheets or offend anyone else who may have to share your bed!

For those who hate the rigmarole of applying tan then this is for you. It’s also perfect if you are someone who finds their face never tans or prefers to wear a high SPF normally on their face.

Available in a 20ml bottle (sounds small but will last ages) and is £34.00 here.

Estee Lauder Double Wear Nude

Shade in Fresco

Gone are the days of thinking Estee Lauder’s Double Wear foundation is a full on base that allows for no natural skin to peek through. The latest launch this July is their Double Wear Nude water fresh makeup and my go it’s gorgeous!

It’s a weightless liquid foundation that provides the skin with a light to medium cover. It evens the skin, dulls down pigmentation areas and smooths out the overall look of the skin. The finish it gives is the piece de résistance. It literally is like you have just washed your face and still have a sheer wash of moisture over the skin.

 As you move your face the light bounces off naturally but without a hint of artificial shimmer. The pigments used within the foundation are wrapped in a flexible polymer that moves with the skin. You can really tell that the pigments move with the skin as when the light catches it looks like waves of silk on the surface of the face.

 The skin feels hydrated and velvet soft without any clinging, or patchiness over time.

It contains an SPF30 and is also oil free. Would be suitable for a very dry through to a combination skin type. The very oily among you may find it a little too reflective.

There are a whopping 33 shades in this launch in a good mix of warm and cool tones. Unfortunately we only have the shade in Fresco (which is way too light on my skin so looks a little ashy on me).

 

This foundation is available now for £32.50. Because of the huge shade range I would advise visiting a counter for the consultant to check your best match.

 You can also shop online here.

Emily Ratajkowski Drugstore Tutorial

Nip+Fab Concealer

If you’re looking for a more purse friendly alternative to the high-end concealers then check out Nip+Fab liquid concealers.

These water-based concealers apply via a flexible brush tip. The tube is squeezy so you can control the amount of product dispensing through the brush. Be careful though as I found the lighter colour to spurt out a little.

 The texture is nicely creamy but dries off to a flat matte finish, there’s no light reflection, which makes it a nice choice particularly for blemishes.

It’s a good coverage so go easy on application to avoid it caking. Sit’s nicely on the skin and even after a few hours wear I couldn’t detect much movement.

 It applies nicely onto blemishes and would conceal pigmentation and flat blemishes well. If you have any blemishes, which are particularly dry, then it will cling slightly because of the matte texture of the cream.

Colour wise it’s not extensive. A good selection of medium tones but if you have very fair skin or have a deeper skin tone then you will struggle. We have 5 out of the 6 shades available.

If you were looking to apply this concealer on blemishes then I would advise not to use the brush applicator, as it will easy to spread bacteria with this type of applicator. Either dab it onto your clean finger first or apply onto a separate brush.

 These concealers are £8.95 each and are available here.

Giorgio Armani Eye and brow Maestro and Precision Brow Pencil

Initially, when the new Eye and Brow Maestro landed on my desk I assumed it was a brow cream, I think most people would have that conclusion too right?

 It kind of is really but it’s more than that. It’s a multi-purpose solid to liquid to solid product, which can be used in the brows, as an eye shadow, eyeliner and even a contour. It is strongly pigmented and once set it mimics the natural shine of hair through its use of glass and mica pearl infusion.

It’s completely waterproof and lasts super well on the skin. The texture is beautiful. It glides on in a lightweight veil of colour and is easily blended providing you work relatively quickly. It’s a really nice product for summer getaways when you don’t fancy taking multiple products.

Now the colours available confused me slightly. We were sent two shades in Wenge Wood (a lilac/brown) and Henna, which is an orange/red. Both colours would probably look a little bonkers through the brows unless that’s your thing in which case you probably look mega cool and way more daring than us.

  After inspection of the Giorgio Armani website, however, there are in fact a load more ‘regular’ colours that would be more suited to the brows. The two shades we have would look sensational over the lid though as a base or worn alone.

There are 7 other shades available but I would recommend taking a look at them in store if this is an option because I don’t think the shades translate well on the imagery on the website. Wenge wood looks a taupe brown on the website but has way more plum undertones in real life.

Along with this collection are three shades of high precision brow pencils. We have the shade in 1 Wenge Wood, which would be suitable for a dark blonde through to deep brunette.

 It applies smoothly, lasts really well, applies with great precision and best of all has an amazing fine tooth comb on the opposite end so you can accurately position your brow hairs. The comb also helps to blend in the pencil and soften the finish.

The Eye and Brow  Maestro is £28.00 and the High Precision brow pencil is £25.00.

 Both are available now, here.

Everyday Makeup Tutorial

Urban Decay Shapeshifter Contour/Highlighter palette

Contour queens you’re going to enjoy the new Shapeshifter palette from Urban Decay. It has two layers of contour and highlighting products in a mix of powder and cream.

 The handy palette holds 2 powder contours and 2 powder highlighters. If you flip the inner layer up it reveals 2 cream contours and 2 colour correcting creams along with a highlighter.

 

 We have the palette for medium-dark skin tones so these would only really be suitable for a medium through to olive and on to deeper skin tones. I haven’t seen the light-medium option to comment on but I believe it contains lighter tones that have an ashier undertone.

The shades in the medium-dark palette we have are very warm toned. They contain a strong pigment that must be applied in minimal amounts to ensure a soft contour.

I found the powder texture a little tricky to blend. It applied heavily and it stuck to any dryness or skin texture and also went slightly patchy. Use a small fluffy contour brush to dust on the powder and then really work it into the skin with a slightly firmer brush. I would say this palette wouldn’t really be for someone new to contouring, as it needs a little practise and work to get it to sit on the skin well.

 The cream products are much easier to work into the skin and are also easier to correct if you make a mistake. The creams have a nice, easy to work texture but would not be great on an oily skin. I did find that they moved a little on the skin too so you may prefer to set with a little loose powder.

 Over all a nice pigmented contour/highlight palette, which would be great for travelling with or for professionals. Not one for those who like a quick easy contour and definitely more of an evening palette rather than a daytime natural look.

Available now here for £39.50

By Terry Blur Bronzing Serum and Stylo Blackstar

Oh boy I wish this wasn’t so expensive because it’s a beautiful bronzing serum and super easy to incorporate into your routine. I love the idea of a pigment infused serum because it slots in easily with a good skin care regime and also aids your makeup application by giving you a tinted base to work upon.

 This water-based serum contains skin-benefiting ingredients to smooth and firm the skin. It applies in a gel/cream formula and contains bronzing spheres of colour which melt into the skin and give a naturally sun kissed veil of bronze.

sun glow

 The finish is beautiful on the skin. It has a totally realistic and natural tint to the skin, which is easy to blend. Apply it as you would your regular serum and finish with a thin layer of your normal moisturiser on top. You can then use a foundation if you need a little more coverage but because of the skin smoothing and bronzing effect this has you can totally get away with no foundation and just a few blobs of blended concealer here and there.

It doesn’t have any shimmer to it so if your skin is more on the dry side then I’d team it up with a cream blush or liquid highlighter on the high points of the face to give the skin a lift. 

 I found

 We have the shade in No 3 Sun Bronze, which was the darkest of the three shades available. It does appear quite terracotta toned initially but used sparingly on a medium to olive skin it would be totally natural. There are also two other shades, which are lighter if you need something for a fairer skin.

This product is also really nice to mix with your foundation on an evening out if you feel like your normal foundation is not quite matching your summer skin tone. It gives it a shot of warmth that also makes the skin literally come to life. It’s a really great product for the summer if you have the budget. You can purchase here for £76.00.

We have spoken before about our love for the By Terry Stylo Blackstar sticks and for the summer the shades in Aqua Mint and Copper crush are gorgeous.



Suitable for any skin tone, they blend out well as a base and ensure that any powder eye shadow you apply on top will not budge, even in humidity.

 These are nice swept over the lid and worn on their own but you need to blend fast as they don’t budge once they are set.

 These are £25.00 each  here and are available in other shades too. We also love the smoky black as a base for an intense smoky eye.

Makeup SOS with minimal products