Elizabeth Arden: Visible Difference Refining Moisture Cream Complex

BLKMimiLDN readers may recall I recently blogged about my love of Elizabeth Arden’s Perpetual Moisture Crème in my Sun-Proof skin post. In typical fashion I ran out before securing a backup and so found myself needing to rush out to purchase another cream that promised to do wonderful things for the skin on my face. I went out and picked up Elizabeth Arden's Visible Difference Refining Moisture Cream Complex.

What does the brand say?

...The classic moisturizing formula. Rich, emollient, protective, it cushions skin with moisture and provides an occlusive barrier to prevent moisture loss. Tests show a significant reduction in the appearance of fine dryness lines and a dramatic improvement in skin's appearance in just 14-21 days. Dermatologist, allergy and clinically tested.

My findings:

Initially I was sceptical and my skin didn’t appear to be impressed, but I preserved, using it as my night cream and was left pleasantly surprised. The cream is thick and wonderfully rich. After ten days I noticed that my skin had a new level of radiance about it and was happily moisturised. Despite having eczema I am not overly adverse to products containing fragrance and I am happy to report that this product’s scent invoked happy childhood memories for me.

It is exciting times for Elizabeth Arden; the brand has been quick to embrace and capitalise on new skincare technology, replacing older lines with items packed with concentrated goodies - I already have my eye on two other products!

Feel free to let me know if you have tried any Elizabeth Arden products.

The Body Shop: Hemp Hand Oil

Two weeks ago, whilst on my lunch break,  I fell prey to a very successful marketing attack by the Body Shop – a £3 off voucher to be used on any product in store and a tester pot to try products at my leisure.  I strongly believe in trying before you buy and as I was in-between hand creams the opportunity to try a new product seemed hard to miss. Now as someone who suffers from very dry skin (eczema) I automatically honed in on the products designed for ‘very dry skin’ and so promptly started to check out the hemp products.

 Regular readers of BLKMimiLDn will recall me mentioning that I have embarked upon a healthy Hair journey; as such, I have been experimenting with a number of oils to deep condition my hair and Hemp has become a firm favourite of mine. The idea of trying a hemp hand cream seemed like a good idea, but I didn’t like the feel of the cream and so moved on to try the oil. I found that the oil was light enough to sink into my skin without leaving a nasty greasy feel.  The cleaver dropper applicator appealed to me even more as due to the nature of my work I am constantly washing my hands and ease of quickly massaging two drops into my hands convinced me to redeem my voucher. 

Results:

I kid you not, within a day I noticed a difference in my hands.  They suddenly turned from their tough washer woman texture (thanks cheep alcohol soap at work) into soft paws; I found myself stroking my hands in disbelief. Within three days my nails had turned from peeling and flaky to smooth, stronger tips.  After a week I had to adjust how I opened tins and cans as I had nails that were strong enough not to snag. 

As a regular at my local nail supply shop, I should mention that I have had moderate success with other products designed to stimulate growth, but have found that these products have only short term success on my nails and haven’t affected the texture of my hands.  This oil is now a staple on my desk and I have now converted two of my colleagues to use it. I’m not overly in love with the Body Shop’s price, but will more than likely repurchase it again when it runs out if they have another similar promotion in the future. 

I’m always looking for tips on how I can keep my hands soft, have you had any success with any other oil / products?

L'Oreal Rouge Caresse

L’Oreal’s  Rouse Caresse line is like a cross between a light-weight, sheer lipstick with lashings of moisture. It took well over a month for me to convince myself to purchase these lipsticks. I need to make a confession: I am not a fan of L’Oreal at all. Their skincare products break me out and, after a bad reaction to two of their mascaras; I have steadfastly not bought any of their products for over eight years. With this said, I need to make clear that I do not dislike the brand but merely accepted what my sensitive skin was telling me each time it reacted to a product from their line. So the fact that I am writing a review on their Rouge Caresse line of lipsticks should be taken as a strong indicator of how much this line surprised me.

Superdrug has recently started it’s 3 for 2 on a number of makeup brands and during a recent visit I decided that this promotion was a sign – picking up Nude Ingenue, Dating Coral, Tempting Lilac . 

Nude Ingenue: It was this nude brown colour that stared my obsession with this line. Unfortunately the gorgeous colour when swatched didn’t translate well onto my lips but fear not, I shall be using it to tone down a few of the louder colours I have in my possession. 

 

Dating Coral: is the surprising hero of my L’Oreal haul. I love the colour that translated onto my lips and feel that I might be able to get away with wearing this on a non makeup day with some mascara. 

 

Tempting Lilac: Was surprisingly faint in colour and needed to be built up to show on my lips. Again I will be using this colour to mix with my existing lipsticks. 

 

 

Now you might think that one hit out of three would turn me off of the line but this is not the case. I am already planning to pick up the brighter colours in this line as I suspect that these colours will translate brilliantly onto my lips. On the whole I found them to last longer than the Revlon Lip Butters, the lighter colours didn’t appear to have that nasty frost that a few of the lip butters provided and  I am happy to report that I haven’t had any reaction to the products at all.  I am glad that I decided to purchase from this line, each colour is buildable and as I have already mentioned, I will be able to use Nude Ingenue and Tempting Lilac to tone down some of my brighter lipsticks that a gloss simply wouldn’t be suitable on.  For those of us in the UK the packaging is a sexy clear, sleek perspex, complementing the smooth texture each Caresse produces. 

Have you come across this line, what shades do you like?     

Make Up Academy: Mosaic Blush

 

Superdrug has had a few good offers on its MUA (Make Up Academy) line and I picked up these two mosaic blushes as part of the two for £4 offer. I have already posted my love of their blush in No. 3 and was keen to try out their mosaic line. 

English Rose

I had English Rose in store and had liked the depth that the two lavender sections added to its pink colour. This was by far my favourite of the two. 

Sun kissed Glow

This reminded me of MAC’s mineralised skin finish products and despite my heavy handed swatch, produced a subtle golden sheen. I have been using it as a highlight on the inner corners of my eyes and under my brows. 

Results

Despite the initial chalkiness, these mosaics offer a decent colour payoff for a superb price point. I was concerned about the ability of the colour to translate from the pan onto my skin and was pleasantly surprised at the results. 

On the whole I remain a fan of the MUA line and will definitely be purchasing more products in the future.

Sleek MakeUp: Blush

I typically don’t wear that much make during warmer months and find myself reaching for a bit of powder blush when I want to add a bit of colour to my face. Sleek's blushes, famed for their super pigmentation, are always in my makeup bag and so I thought I’d share a few of my favourites singles with you. 

 

Whilst I don’t tend to worry about touching up - seriously, the pigmentation is that good, the sleek (pun intended) black packaging makes each blush suitable for even the smallest of clutches / purses. 

Initially, I had a love-hate relationship with Pan-Tao as it doesn’t show up on my skin when bare, but I have learnt that it mixes well with blushes and to use a heavier hand.

 

On the whole I recommend these blushes to all women, irrespective of your colour,  as they are excellent value considering the quality!

Have you purchased any of Sleek’s blushes?

Boot's: Natural Collection Lip Liners

I'm always on the hunt for a good lip liner and these three from Boot's Natural Collection have been keeping me going over the last few weeks. I had clocked up a decent stock of No7 vouchers and was browsing the shelves to see what products I should redeem a voucher against when I saw the three for £5 offer on a selection of Natural Collection product. A quick swatch of Ruby Rose and I was left impressed by both the colour pay-off and creamy texture these liners produced. Their £1.99 price makes them super affordable and excellent value for money considering the superb quality produced.

Although Espresso is a nice brown colour I’m still on the look out for a liner that will beat my NYX's Espresso.

 What lip liners do you use and why? Any suggestions will be warmly received. 

xBMLx

Festival Outfit Of The Day: Hackney Weekend

 

On Sunday 24th June 2012 I headed over to Hackney for day two of Radio One's Hackney Weekend. This was a festival designed to give something back to an area that will experience a lot of disruption with the forthcoming Olympics. With the overwhelming presence of Dance / Grime/ Dancehall/ Pop/ Hip-Hop, the head honchos at the Radio One had clearly decided to try appeal to the local (ethnic) demographic and so I was happy to grace this event with my presence. The fact that it was free helped considerably. 

 Green Parka - New Look

Checked Shirt - New Look

Grey Tunic - Dorothy Perkins

Black High Waist Leggings - New Look

Neon Paisley Willies - New Look

Bird Print Scarf - Peacocks

Bag - H&M 

 

Festival Chic

Unintentionally my outfit was a New Look Love-in.

I opted for a light layers and wellies; trust me these babies were a must as the heavens had opened overnight. The lightweight parka afforded me protection from the rain, the tunic covered my essentials and the leggings provided ease of movement - the mud was serious in parts! I'm an old raver at heart and so wanted to be able to dance. If you follow me on Twitter (@BLKMimiLDN) you will know that my bag broke as soon as I passed the six rounds of security - it was in Hackney- and I was less than impressed *side eye to H&M.

Fortunately I was a Girl Guide in a past life and so put my knot badge to full use, managing to salvage it for the rest of the evening.

The Event

Highlights of the day included seeing Tinie Tempah and Florence + Machine. I think I scared my friends and I went hard during Tinie's Set, I felt positively euphoric after, it was that good!

Sadly I had wanted to see Nas but he came on late and found that half of the assembled crowd had got bored of booing and walked over to see Rihannia. Note to any 'artist': it is extremely disrespectful to leave your crowd waiting and come on without so much as an apology. Rihannia was quite good and I spent a pleasant evening dancing with my girlie's to a selection of her songs.

On a whole I was so glad I went, excellent company and decent artists allowed me to enjoy this event. I have attended a few festivals in my time but increasingly find that they are fast becoming unaffordable and appeal to a certain demographic; having acts that I listen to on my iPod was a step in the right direction and so thumbs up to Radio One. Hopefully they will do something like this again and soon.

Have you attended any festivals lately, aside from wet wipes / anti bac gel what are your essentials? 

*My thanks to Tam & Sash for taking photos throughout the day xx