Relive your youth at The Body Shop

If you were in your teens in the early to mid 1990’s, chances are at some point you wore, or at least smelt, The Body Shops’ Dewberry fragrance. Well now TBS have re-introduced a number of their old favourites, including Dewberry shower gel, all for a purse friendly price of £3.99 (their price from back in the day apparently). Also available is the delicious Banana shampoo, Cucumber cleanser and toner, Passionfruit face wash and a yummy Green Apple shower gel too. They are also running a ballot where you can vote for your favourite out of this selection to keep it permanent. It’s always good to have a saunter down Memory Lane so go find your nearest TBS and sniff your way back to the old days.

Eyelash extensions?

Now, I have heard of eyelash extensions but didn’t really think they were as common as they apparently are. Salons everywhere are offering this service promising to transform stumpy lashes to an elegant, Bambi-like flutter. Sounds good? I’m in two minds still having read about the upkeep, do’s and don’t’s and the overall cost. Surely the effect can be achieved with a good lengthening and thickening mascara? **Review Alert** L’Oreal lash serum which I’ve previously mentioned is also pretty damn good.

It’s not to say, however, that I won’t find myself edging towards my nearest salon to enquire though. Or possibly treat myself to an early Christmas present perhaps?

Check out the iVillage article here

Magic, Mirth and Mischief – MAC Holiday 09

I always love the MAC Holiday collections, and this years’ is no exception. As always there are brush sets (ones for eye makeup, face and essentials for both), cute bags containing eye products (pigment, fluidline and brush) and lip products (lipliner, lipstick and dazzleglass) as well as new single products.

My favourites have to be the Mineralize sets: a skinfinish, blush, eyeshadow and mini buffer brush and the pretty eye/face/lip kits in fancy little palettes (as opposed to the unattractive plastic palettes they usually use!)

It’s going to be an expensive Holiday this year….

L’Oreal Lash Booster – will mascara be redundant?

It was only a matter of time before one of the cosmetic companies brought out a lash extender, and who better than the company with a finger in every skincare pot, L’Oreal. I managed to track down one of these today and having had good results with Talika Lipocils which does a similar, albeit more pricier job, I will be keen to see how this pans out. Watch this space!

Kenzo goes doll crazy this autumn

You either love or hate Kenzo flowers, but how pretty is this bottle?! The Russian inspired Matryoshka doll bottle will be limited edition so go find it before it disappears. Although not available in the UK yet (should be here by November), it promises to be a real wintery fragrance with more ‘woody’ undertones than the flowery scent that Kenzo Flower is unsurprisingly recognised for.

Review – Bumble and bumble Surf Spray

If you’ve ever wanted that tousled, lounging at the beach all day look, then this is the product for you. Salt sprays have been brought out by various different companies over the last couple of years but this is the product that I’ve found works the best for giving this effect as well as holding the style. It’s best used on towel-dried hair, though can be used on dry hair when it needs a restyle, though I’ve found that like with other salt sprays, it can leave hair a bit too sticky when applied like this.

Not the cheapest product (RRP around £15), but a little goes a long way so the bottle lasts for ages.

Review – Samy Fat Hair ‘0′ Calories

Products I have recently tried for my hair are from the Samy range. Samy used to be sold mainly on QVC and other shopping channels, but they have now branched out into Superdrug as well. My hair isn’t majorly flat but can do with some uplifting at times so thought something from here would do the trick. And it did!

In the little pot is thickening pomade which is meant to increase each hair strand in diameter creating a thicker, fuller effect. It can be used on wet or dry hair but beware, a small amount only is needed! Otherwise you get a nice greasy effect which really isn’t what you want. Good to give hair some oomph.

In the bottle is serum and this works brilliantly before blowdrying. It can be applied to roots sparingly, and then throughout the rest of hair and as well as giving volume it also gives great shine.

Cosmetic Company Outlets

These stores are absolutely fantastic-go find your nearest one! Having just returned from New York, and a visit to Woodbury Common (huge designer outlet) I tracked down the CCO there. These stores have discounted products from the ranges that Estee Lauder own (MAC, Prescriptives, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, EL….and lots more) and you can always find a good bargain. Particularly where MAC is concerned as they bring out regular limited edition ranges any surplus items tend to be sold off at the CCO’s, so they are worth looking in to if you missed out. Here in the UK I tend to visit the CCO at McArthur Glen in York and Bicester Village. MAC eyeshadows for £7? Really not to be missed!

Goodbye Prescriptives….

Estee Lauder are closing the Prescriptives brand as of January 2010. This is unfortunate as they make some great products but are unfortunately considered a bestseller in the big world of Estee Lauder. For the time being it will be worth stocking up on products as according to my local counter, they will remain in store until 31st January 2010, and then remaining products will likely be found at discount cosmetic outlet stores.

Cult Products?

Read any beauty magazine or website, and there will usually be at least one product that is referred to by its cult status. Although they can be loved by many and regarded as staple products, for others they are considered a waste of money. Here is my take on some of the products recommended year after year.

YSL Touche Eclat – for me this is the ultimate product that no other imitations can beat. The packaging, the ease of application, the look all makes it one of the best selling products of all cosmetics time, pretty good going! It is an instant highlighter used to brighten the undereye area (can also be used around lip contours and sides of the nose to increase radiance), make you look awake and refreshed and can help reduce dark circles. What it doesn’t do is conceal dark circles and this seems to be where the confusion is when the product perhaps doesn’t have the effect you want.

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour cream – this has been around since 1930 so must have something good going for it! You can use this cream for absolutely everything, really! From chapped lips, dry skin, cuts, even used to tame hair frizziness, this is one of those products that everyone should keep in their handbag. While it does smell medicinal and not to everyone’s taste, it is worth persevering with this one as it really does deserve its cult status. And it is not as my mother put it, ‘a pricey version of Vaseline’! It is much more than that!

Vaseline – I suppose this should follow next seeing as the two are meant to do the same. Now I have never really got on with Vaseline as much as I want to as their little lip balm pots are so ideal . I found it did nothing for chapped lips except make them feel greasy, not good.

Chanel No. 5 perfume – another product that has been out for years, this fragrance became available in 1921. Like marmite, you either love this or hate it, I’m somewhere in the middle. Its a heavy scented fragrance that I couldn’t wear every day, but it’s nice for evenings when you want to feel demure and sophisticated (perhaps…). Now Coco Mademoiselle on the other hand is much more my thing.

Palmers Cocoa Butter – available in various forms, lip balm, lotion, butter… If you like chocolate and don’t mind smelling of it, this could be the product for you. The smell lingers all day and I find it can be a bit sickly after a while so want to wash it off, defeats the point really. The lip balm is nice though and isn’t as overpowering as the creams and lotions. Does what it says on the tin though and keeps skin soft.

Clinique Almost lipstick in Black Honey – this incredibly sheer lipstick was freely available up until a few years back when it was discontinued. Why Clinique discontinued it was beyond me, but they have now reissued it to coincide with one of their collections and surprise surprise, is selling fast. When you first see the colour, it is dark (well, black I suppose, hence the name and all…) but don’t let that put you off. The Almost lipsticks apply with the sheerness of a gloss, but without the stickiness and Black Honey is just a really pretty berry shade that would suit all skintones.

Dr. Hauschka Rose day cream – I wanted to like this cream as I’d heard great reviews about it, apparently one tube is sold every six minutes in the UK. Instead it made my face far too greasy, and smelt sickly. No-one wants that.

Benefit High Beam/Moon Beam – fantastic highlighters that last an age! Although Moon beam is more for warm skintone and High beam for cooler tones, personally I wear both. High beam has feint pink shimmer, Moon beam is golden and both give an ‘awake’ fresh look to the skin without being overly shimmery. Use on browbone, cheeks, along nose, anywhere to give a glimpse of highlight.

Would be interested to see how others fare to these. Yay/Nay? Anything else worth its cult status?