UPDATE! Sleek iDivine Circus Palette in Superdrug Today!

I popped into Superdrug in Westfield this afternoon to pick up a Sleek Face Contour Kit and guess what I saw?!

Oh yes! They put it out early!  It's not on Sleek's website yet.  I got the second last one and the poor girl at the till was sighing with everything she scanned through for me saying 'I want to get one of these!'  The packaging is bright but I love it, what else could a 'circus' one be?! 

Without Flash

With Flash

The colours are extremely bright, but more workable that the Acid iDivine.  The midnight blue colour (on the far right in the photo below) is my favourite, and all the others are as pigmented as we've come to expect from Sleek.  The only disappointment is the white shade - not pigmented at all as you can see from the swatch (or not as the case may be!) between the purple and dark blue swatches below.  There's also a good balance between matte and shimmery shadows.

Without Flash

With Flash

I'm looking forward to creating some bright summer looks with this palette!

Will you be picking up Circus?

Coming 7th July! Sleek MakeUp iDivine Circus Palette

I saw lots of pretty photos of the newest palette to be released by Sleek MakeUP on beauty blogs a few months ago, and I could have sworn the release date was 9th July (which I thought of as auspicious as the Eclipse movie is also officially released then too!).  However, Circus will be hitting shops this Wednesday, 7th July.

I've only ever come across Sleek online, in larger Superdrugs (Westfield, Kensington High Street) and in a random little beauty shop in Kilburn.  No link for that one I'm afraid!

Like the Bohemian iDivine, this palette comes in a colourful cardboard sleeve and is not the usual black colour, but a bright red.  The shadows look wonderfully bright for summer, and are more wearable than the contents of the Acid iDivine.  I especially love the look of Midnight Blue.

Check out some great photos of the palette and swatches at Lipglossiping.com

Race you to Superdrug!

Is Your Phone Giving You Acne?

One of the lovely things my boy gave me for Christmas was an iPhone.

Exhibit A:

One not so lovely thing it's given me is acne.  Or more accurately, a persistent spot on the lower part of my right cheek, near the corner of my mouth.  And the culprit? See that crud on the shiny surface? Oh yes, that would be my make up, sebum and filth of London.  Every time I take a phone call, these delicious substances have a dirty little party on my cheek.  Resulting in...

Exhibit B:

I hope you're not eating lunch!  And apologies if you are!

Now one thing I am blessed with is spot-free skin most of the time (karmic-ally balanced out by pores you could swim in) , and on the odd occasion a little beastie does erupt around that special time of month, I blitz it with a couple of lashings of TCP liquid.  However, this little monster is being very persistent, and I've had it over a week now, which is normally unheard of for me.  But see, it gets to meet up with it's best friends about ten times a day, so why would it run off with smelly old TCP?

My work AGM is next week and this eruption needs to be gone by then, so I am taking action.  I thought about getting some antibacterial wipes to give my phone a rub down after each face party, but it's been so hot recently, and the tube is always as boiling as the third circle of hell, so they would dry out too quickly in my bag.   However, I always carry with me a little bottle of antibacterial gel and a packet of tissues, and so this is what I'll use to keep my phone germ free.  I'll let you know how I get on in a few weeks and whether the combo blitzes the beastie for good.

I have a really cute, mini bottle of antibac gel from Victoria's Secret in the scent Pure Seduction, which is a great smell for my phone, but not one on my hands right before eating.  If you try this out too remember to  be careful to avoid getting the gel near the button or speaker in case it damages the handset.

A pink match made in heaven!

Lip Plumping Rave: Miss Groovy Lip Poison

Despite posting some half decent lip shots on here, I am actually a lip-less wonder.  Or was until I discovered Miss Groovy's Lip Poison...

That was a few years ago, and at the time, it was a revelation for me and actually helped me get over my obsession with hating my lips.  I never really bothered with lipstick or gloss back then as I figured there was no point in emphasising a rubbish feature.  I concentrated on my eyes instead.  Obsession over, my poor tube of Lip Poison languished in my 'lip drawer' until last night, when I wanted to see some Angelina Jolie pout action.

Here are the results...

Before application: 

I'd say that on someone with average sized lips the product would have a more dramatic effect, but the poor old Lip Poison didn't really have much to work with on me!

After application:

Considering that when I wake up my lips are normally as dry as Gandhi's slipper, I was pretty happy with the non-dry and noticeably (to me) plumper than normal effect.   Also, I remember the product stinging a lot more when the tube was fresh, so the effect back then was even more noticable.  If you check the company website you'll see some dodgy photoshopped photos of lips - I don't know why they did this as it would put most people off buying, and moreover, the product works so they should have just shown realistic photos.

The next morning:

You can order Miss Groovy Lip Poison online for £12.99.  The price isn't bad considering the cost of others on the market, like Two Faced's Lip Injection, which I've found to be quite useless.  I've also tried Sally Hanson Lip Inflation - equally useless.  They both make your lips tingle, which is a nice sensation, but don't do much more than a regular gloss for making lips look plumper.

One drawback of the Lip Poison is that it makes your lips seriously sting, personally I don't mind that as I feel like it's doing something, but bear this in mind if you're quite sensitive.  It also makes your lips very red (all that blood plumping them up!) so it might not work well if you want to create a nude lip look. However the formula isn't sloppy so you can layer other products over it once the plumping action is complete.

Lip Poison isn't purely an on-demand plumper - it's also marketed as an actual lip treatment whereby if you slap it on each night for 30 days you should notice your lips getting larger over time.  I'm not so sure on this one, I didn't try it as I don't have the patience or memory to commit to something for 30 days, plus I didn't want to use the tube up too quickly.  Needn't have worried about that!

What's your holy grail lip plumper? Is there something else out there that actually works other than collagen injections?!