Mac Monday - See Sheer lipstick

Why does my camera refuse to accept that there is a colour called 'coral' and instead photograph it as 'pink'?  Which is not CORAL.  It makes my job so much more difficult when describing this to you.

See Sheer is, trust me, a sheer, glossy coral offering from the Mac permanent line.

Very pretty and wearable, no matter the weather, or what your camera wants you to believe.

Product Pixie: bringing you misleading colour swatches since 2010.

Neutrogena Oil-Free Make Up Remover

Over the last couple of months, I've been making a concerted effort to take proper care of my skin, and that includes a thorough cleanse at the end of the day.  I never thought my skin was terribly congested, but it turns out that threatening it with a single face wipe and flopping into bed most nights wasn't doing me any favours, so I turned to the new Neutrogena Oil-Free Make-Up Remover to begin my new cleasning regime with renewed vigour.

I cannot speak highly enough about this product.  I got it from Boots for around £3.50, and didn't have any expectations, having not read anything about it, but I am generally impressed with Neutrogena products so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

It claims to be a face and eye make-up remover, and whilst I don't mind sweeping it over my eyes to pick up any residue left from my Botanics eye make-up remover, I'm not sure it's gentle enough for me to use by itself on my eyes.

The texture is quite thick, and it looks and smells like a typical Neutrogena cream face wash/mask, but that doesn't bother me at all.  I use it with large cotton pads, and usually I need 5 pads to cleanse thoroughly and leave no trace of make-up on.  That's the one thing that bothers me about this method of cleansing actually - the extra expense of cotton wool.  I know it's not expensive but I'm getting through nearly three packs a month, taking into account eye make-up remover and toner, so it's definitely something I'm noticing.

This cleanser is oil-free, and thus perfect for oily skins.  Although the texture is creamy, it's a deep cleanser with antibacterial (read: stripping) qualities, and therefore I think dry skins will not respond to this as well.

I have had a couple of breakouts since I've been using it, but I think that's my skin responding to a proper cleanse everyday and shedding itself of impurities.  I've also noticed that the clogged pores on my nose are becoming unclogged - or at least the pore 'contents' (ew) are coming to the surface and are very easy to get rid of, something I've never had before.

I highly recommend this product if you've got oily or spot-prone skin.  It's truly my favourite ever cleanser, and one I don't mind giving up a few extra minutes of sleep to use.

UK: Buy it here.

US: Buy it here.

What are your favourite cleansers?

P.S.  Have you entered my giveaway yet?  Just be a follower to enter!

Mac Monday - Morange lipstick

First up, have you entered my giveaway??! £40 to spend of make-up of your choice?  Just be a follower is all!  But read all about it here.

The next lipstick in my little Mac line-up is this, not for the faint-hearted, Morange lipstick.  I know this will be my colour of the summer.  I can feel it in my shivering, Vitamin D-deprived bones.

It is a properly bright, tangerine neon, and I love it.  I have worn it since I got it, but it doesn't look brilliant at 8am on the District line, in the rain, with a skin tone best likened to a slightly old raw chicken breast.

Once my tan has been dealt with, no doubt sometime in mid-August, I shall be whipping this out once more and channelling my inner Carmen Miranda.

I imagine this would look absolutely beautiful on darker skins.  I also am cursing my camera for making this look red, when, in fact, it ain't.

Have you tried Morange?  What do you think?

Nails Inc Vitamin E cuticle oil pen

I'm quite bad at remembering to treat my cuticles in between manicures, and, as such, my nails can end up looking quite raggedy, which is a shame when I've gone to the effort to paint them nicely.

I love this cuticle oil pen from Nails Inc.  It's perfect for keeping in my bag and applying at work a couple of times a day.  The oil distributes evenly from the pen, and soaks in within 15 minutes, so it doesn't get in the way of any keyboard-based activities.

It's not clear exactly how much product is in the pen, but mine's been going strong for nearly two months now, and that's using it usually twice a day.  A little goes a long way, so don't get carried away and twist the bottom too enthusiastically.

It's not a substitute for any further treatment, but for touch-ups to keep your nails in lovely condition, this is brilliant.  My third one to date.  There shall be more.

Available to buy here.

NOTD: OPI Ski Teal We Drop

As you're reading this, I will be strapping on my ski boots and sliding/screaming my way down some hills on my first ever ski holiday, so thought this would be an appropriate post to kick it off.

Ski Teal We Drop was part of OPI's Winter 2010 collection, all themed around Switzerland and skiing.  I love it.  It's a perfect deep teal, applies really well and looks great in these cold months.

Sorry about the shoddy manicure - was busy panicking about how the hell to get on and off a ski lift.

P.S.  Don't forget to enter the giveaway!  Just be a follower is all :)

Gosh eyeliners

Don't forget, if you haven't already entered, I'm running a giveaway!  Just be a follower to be entered!

Gosh is a Danish drugstore brand that can be purchased at Superdrug in the UK.  It's not a brand I am particularly interested in - if only because their counter displays are always messy, understocked and confusing - but they have a couple of good products in the line, the standout of which, for me, are their eyeliners.

They have a couple of different types, the Velvet Touch pencils, and the Let's Twist automatic pencil liners.  I have two of each which I've had for ages and wear regularly.

Top-bottom: Velvet Touch liners in Golden Cadillac and Green Grass.  Let's Twist liners in Aqua Line and Deep Sea.

With the lids off!

As you can see, the Velvet Touch liners are proper pencils (which sharpen nicely) and the Let's Twist are the twist up pencils and are slimmer overall.

The pigmentation of all these liners is exceptional.  Creamy and bright, they blend easily and last for ages, even on the waterline.  I like wearing Deep Sea, a lovely navy, for everyday wear, and the other three I like wearing on my lower lashline  for evening make-up.

Without flash:

With flash:

They're great colours - and there's a huge range overall to choose from - and each of them have a subtle, but noticeable, amount of metallic shimmer.

Have you tried any of the Gosh liners?  What colours would you recommend?  I'm after a deep purple one next!

NOTD: Rimmel Rose Libertine

First of all, there's a giveaway!  From me to you!  Here!  Win £40 worth of any make-up of your choice!  Go!  Be a follower!  Thank you.

Now, onto serious matters.  You know when you get a hankering for a colour product in a vey particular shade, not necessarily one you've actually even seen in real life before?  Well, I have been after the perfect tea rose shade of nail polish for a while.  Possibly a sheer tea rose, a jelly formula at the very least.  I hadn't come close to anything like it for a while, and then one day, my peepers fell upon the rows of Rimmel polishes in my local drugstore, and I thought I had it.  This is the 60 Second polish in Rose Libertine.

In the bottle, it looked like that soft rose pink I was after - almost the colour of a pale rose turkish delight.  Alas, I have been disappointed.

On application, it's a very bright, Barbie pink, which is not to my liking at all.  If this was a lipstick, it would be Pink Friday.  Pepto Bismol.  Not the tea rose I wanted.  I think even in the pictures it looks different in the bottle to how it does on the nails.

I can't fault the application - Rimmel polishes apply really well - and this was only one coat, but it doesn't dry in 60 seconds, for a start, and it also starting chipping within 12 hours.  Although all polishes do that to me.

Frankly, I am disappointed.  And still hunting. 

Any polishes you can recommend that you think might be what I'm after?

Giveaway - £40 to spend on any make-up you like!

So, having run this here blog for a fair while, and having made the commitment to step up my posting and time devoted to it, I thought it might be a nice time to run a little giveaway.

Doesn't that sound fun?!

When I reach 70 followers, I will be selecting one at random, and the prize will be...*drum roll, fanfare, etc.*

....£40 to spend (or rather, for me to spend,) on a make-up item, or some make-up items, completely of your choice.

So, to sum up, if you are the chosen one, you can let me know what you would like, and I will buy it for you and send it to you all tied up with a pretty ribbon.

How does that sound?  I thought £40 would be a good amount - if you want an individual high-end item, £40 should cover it, or it can be spent on multiple cheaper items, if you wish.  Maybe you just want a back up of your favourite foundation or mascara?  Anything goes here!

You can also choose to spend your prize on tools - brushes, bags, palettes, brush cleansers - if you wish.

I am excluding haircare and skincare from this giveaway - need to save something for the next one!

And if that's not enough,  I will ship anywhere in the world, so if you are currently reading this from your beachside lodge in Bali, or your chalet in Chamonix, or your tent in Taiwan, FEAR NOT!  A carrier pigeon with manicured claws could be pecking at your door very soon!

I live in London, and so have easy access to the following, if this is what you want:

Selfridges
Liberty
Mac Pro store
Guru Make-up Emporium (MUFE)
Harvey Nichols
Harrods
Space NK

Any drugstore brands or any boutiques or pro make-up stores you know of, and obviously, online.  I am happy to order online from any UK store (or rather, any online store that won't cost me another £40 in shipping).  I figured if you are entering from abroad, you might want to opt for something harder to get wherever you live so UK brands are my speciality, but don't feel confined by my postcode :)

The rules are simple: BE A FOLLOWER PLEASE!

Also, please leave me a comment with your contact email address, and, if you like, your dream product/products.  You will be entered if you're just a follower and leave your email address, but I like things to read.

Maybe you want a Tom Ford lipstick, or 4 Mac ones?  Or you might want a Chanel bronzer, Shu Uemera lash curlers, Laura Mercier concealer...anything! You decide!

If the product or products you choose come in at under £40, I will include a little extra something as a surprise in the package.

Also, if for any reason I have trouble tracking down what you want, I will let you know immediately, so maybe, if you win, give me a little wishlist in order of preference!

The giveaway will close as soon as the number has been reached, and the winner will be announced within 24 hours.

So, please enter, if you haven't already, and good luck!  Oh, and tell everyone.  The quicker the 70's hit, the quicker we can get on to the next giveaway!

Thank you x

Mac Monday - Naked pigment

Mac Naked pigment is a permanent product, which I bought a few months ago from the Mac website.  This is the first Mac pigment I've owned, and to be honest, it was a purchase I wish I hadn't made.  I don't really like loose shadows - I'm not skilled enough in the application to not make a complete mess of both my face and my dressing table, and I'm not sure I ever notice that different a finish than when I use a pressed shadow.

I'm sure most of you know that the Mac pigments used to be packaged, in shorter, fatter pots, with a much bigger circumference, making getting product out a lot easier.  These new pots are pretty dinky (4.5g/0.15 US oz of product), and whilst the amount it fine, it's quite difficult to get product out without a major spillage, or toppling the pot over.

I selected the shade Naked, described on the website as a "fleshy beige with golden copper pearl".  It was a toss up for me between this and Tan, and I feel I made the wrong choice.

In the pot, it looks like a very pale beige - it kind of looks like a setting powder.  When swatched, it's a very subtle, quite pretty pale finish with a small amount of gold reflects running through it.  It's just a bit...meh.

The base powder colour is virtually the same as my skintone, so all that shows up is the gold, so it makes a pretty wash as an all over eye colour, or as a highlight, but I just haven't found myself using it much since I got it.

I have used it as a highlighter and it looks ok, but frankly it's such a faff getting it out of the pot (on a small brush) and then putting that on my cheeks and then buffing it in with a different brush, and invariably having to clean up after myself, that I hardly ever bother.

I think I'll be transferring the pigment to a bigger pot (I'll stalk Muji for something suitable) and then hopefully I  can just use a larger blush brush and use it as a highlighter.  In terms of staying power, it's fine.  Nothing more or less than anything similiar on the market.

In summary, £15.50 not well spent. IDIOT.

Have any of you got this pigment, or something similar?  How do you use it?  Would love to know!

An eye for an eye...

My lovely friend Laura, who blogs here, just alerted me to this excellent deal Clinique are offering on Monday 17th January.  

Similar to the make-up amnesty that Illamasqua ran last year, this one involves trading in an old mascara (any brand) at the Clinique counter in Debenhams and in return you'll get a Clinique mascara (sample size) free.  That's it!  No catch.

See you at the counter...

Free mini Clinique mascara
In store

From Mon 17 Jan, get a free sample of Clinique High Impact or High Lengths mascara when you trade in your old mascara at a Clinique counter in Debenhams. It can be any brand of old mascara, it doesn't have to be Clinique. (I recommend the high lengths one!)

To get the freebie, simply visit the Clinique counter in your nearest Debenhams and hand in your old/empty mascara. Then choose which one of the two Clinique samples you'd like. The offer ends Sun 30 Jan and is limited to one per customer.

This offer's has been a hit in the MSE forums, read the full Clinique Mascara Discussion. 

Mac Monday: Modesty lipstick

I noticed that last Monday, pleasingly the first Monday of the year, I posted about a Mac product, and this post was scheduled for today, also Monday, so I am making Mac Mondays a regular feature.  Today's Mac product is a random purchase made a couple of months ago that resulted in me finding one of my all time favourite lipsticks.  Don't you love it when that happens?

Mac Modesty lipstick is described as a muted neutral pink, and is a cremesheen finish.

It is exactly that, making it an ideal colour for everyday wear or if you're in a hurry and don't have time for anything fancy or fiddly.

It goes on reasonably sheer, but still offers enough colour to perk up my lips and give them a nice sheen.

Love.

Buy it here.

Lip liners

Following on from Thursday's post about my black eyeliner collection, I wanted to write about my lip liner collection.  Again, despite not always using them, I seem to have amassed a modest little stash that I really should make more time to use.

Top - bottom: Inglot lipliner in 861.  NYX Automatic lipliner in Natural. Elf lipliners in Natural Blush, Bitter and Spice.  Prestige lipliner in Silk. No7 Perfect Lips liner in Fire.

The Inglot liner is by far my favourite out of this lot.  I reviewed it (link above) in detail but it's the perfect cerise red that looks amazing on its own or under any red lipstick.  Love it.

The NYX liner (again, my review is linked above) is ok but it's quite a grey nude, which on me can look a little deathly, so I use this to colour in my whole lip area and then use a pink lipstick over the top to balance it out.  It does add good staying power to lipstick though, although it's quite drying, so beware.

The Elf liners were an impulse buy, and I must admit I don't really need or use them, but as a budget choice, they are brilliant.  The colours are nicely pigmented, they stay on reasonably well and they go with a wide range of lip colours, so if you're looking to spend hardly anything, these are the ones I'd go for.

Prestige liner in Silk was a bit of a risk for me.  It's a pale baby pink but applies really nicely and essentially nudes out my lips, making it a great base for any colour.  It's not too drying, and it actually looks quite nice on its own (I slick some 8 Hour Cream over it for a sheen).  Prestige seems to be one of those brands that's often overlooked, but actually contains some gems.  For £3.99, I think this liner is a brilliant buy.

Finally, and this was the first lipliner I ever bought, the No7 Perfect Lips liner in Fire.  This is a punchy bright red, that I initially bought when I went to fancy dress party at university and needs to draw some little hearts on my face (I forget why).  It's a gorgeous colour - less pink than the Inglot one - and stays on well, but I find it very drying, so make sure your lips are primed and smooth before using this.

Swatches in no flash and flash:

Order is same as above.

Looking at these pictures, I would say that Bitter from the Elf range (the one in the middle) is a pretty decent dupe for the Inglot one (at the top) so if you wanted to save some money, go for the Elf one.  I also assume that Elf Spice (3rd from bottom) is a dupe of the infamous Mac Spice liner, but I can't be certain.  Looks like it though.

What are your favourite liners?  I am looking for one to team with peach and coral lipsticks, so any recommendations would be great!

Ciaté All Brittle and Twisted

Lately, my nails have taken a battering.  A rapidly expanding nail polish collection has seen me changing colours up to three times a week, and all the remover, filing, scrubbing (glitter polishes are the devil) and re-painting has taken its toll.  My nails are soft and peeling and break if you so much as sneeze near them, so I'm giving them a rest from colours and treating them to something more nourishing instead.

Enter Ciaté All Brittle and Twisted treatment.  I got this last year from hqhair.com, and hadn't really used it much until recently.  You apply it to bare nails every days for four days, then remove (and either start the process again or finish it).  It's meant to help repair damaged, broken and peeling nails, strengthening them and rehabilitating them for the next onslaught of OPI.

It's clear in colour and gives nails a clean, polished look.  I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, and to be honest, I can't see a huge difference in the condition of my nails.  A couple have still broken, and the peels are still there, but I'm going to persevere and use it for another couple of weeks, teamed with cutting my nails as short as possible, doubling my hand cream efforts and applying nourishing oils at every opportunity.

I'm not sure this treatment is really worth it, but if nothing else, it keeps me in a routine that can't be doing any more harm to my nails than I was doing before.  On the last day of application, my nails definitely feel stronger, but that might just be because they've got four layers of polish holding them together.

If none of that works, I...don't know what I'll do.  Help! What nail treatments do you recommend?

Buy it here.

Une Beauty Sfumato eyeshadow in S09

Last year, Bourjois brought out the Une Beauty range, the philosophy of which is to enhance your beauty without concealing it.  I had to wait a long time to try out anything from the range, as my local Boots and Superdrug seemed to take an age to stock it, but when it arrived, I loved the look of it.  This range is exactly what I look for when I'm buying my everyday make-up.  Plenty of neutral and wearable colours, mineral products, soft eyeshadows, pencils and pretty blushes.  It is priced higher than most drugstore brands (£12-£15 for foundation, £9-£10 for shadows, £10 for mascara) but, to me, the products offer something unique amongst their drugstore counterparts and seem to be of a slightly higher quality.  

I selected two products for my first purchases, a Sfumato eyeliner and this Sfumato eyeshadow in the shade S09.

The shadow packaging is very reminiscent of Clinique's single eyeshadow compacts, and I like it.  I also like that that top of the case is mirror, so can save you space in your make up bag if you're travelling.  However, I don't understand why brands still insist on including crappy little brushes with shadows.  I throw them away immediately, this one being no exception.

The other thing I find a bit annoying is that none of the products have names, just Shu-esque codes, which are printed on the hygiene seal, which can make it difficult to remember the name (especially when, like me, you peel the seal off in glee and throw it away without checking the name).  However, S09 is your basic taupe shade.  There are a few colours like this in the eyeshadow range, I just selected the one that had the most grey to it.

Sorry for the less than brilliant swatch, but this is a quick swipe, demonstrating how pigmented the shadow is. On application, it's quite sheer, but blends beautifully and is easily buildable.  When I'm at home in daylight, I will update this post with a picture of it applied.  Although it's definitely a grey taupe, I think there's a hint of sludgy green in it, so compliments my green eyes nicely.  I like wearing this with a touch of Carbon blended in the crease, and a cool brown liner (usually Mac's Earthline) for an easy and polished daytime eye.

I am really keen to try more products from Une Beauty; in essence, if I was buying make up for the first time in my life, this is the range I'd want to choose from.  It's undoubtedly 'safe', but it has enough appealing colours and textures to create some gorgeous, natural looks.  Buy it here.

Sfumato eye pencil review coming soon, although I was not as impressed with that.

What products have you tried from Une Beauty, and what would you recommend?

Black eyeliners

Not the most interesting of beauty products, as far as I'm concerned, and one I hardly wear when I think about it, but I have four black eyeliner pencils knocking around in my pot, so thought it'd be useful to do a speedy comparison review.

Top to bottom: Miners Love Phat Liner.  Bourjois Khol & Contour.  Benefit Bad Gal.  Mac Smoulder.

L-R (or top - bottom): Miners, Bourjois, Benefit, Mac.

Surprisingly, or not, the Bourjois Khol & Contour is by far the most pigemented and easy to apply.  It glides on so smoothly and cleanly, and the staying power is brilliant.  It smudges (in a controlled fashion) with a blending brush but stays put throughout the day.  I really recommend it if you're looking for an all round great black liner without spending much.

There's not much worth saying about the Miners pencil unfortunately.  It's not particularly pigemented, it smudges immediately (and this time, not in the good way) and fades within a couple of hours of wear.  Honestly not worth however much it costs (which I imagine is not much).

Benefit Bad Gal is a bit of a legend in its own right, but I have to say, I'm not a fan.  I don't mind the finish, but I find the pencil too fat to get the precise line I want initially before blending.  I can never get it right into the lashline, so I always end up with a gap.  It's also not a really "black black", if that makes sense.  I don't want an almost black, I want it to be the darkest it can possibly be.

Finally, Mac Smoulder.  Always in the Black Eyeliner Hall of Fame, yet....I'm not sure why.  I glides on nicely enough, and the black is a good black, and I can't fault the good 'smudgeability' of Smoulder, but...it rubs off and transfers onto my eyelids like a naughty scamp running away from school.  Even with a layer of black shadow to seal it, within an hour, I look like I've gone ten rounds with David Hare (again, sadly, not in the good way).

I blended out all the liners for comparison:

Undoubtedly, Mac Smoulder, at the bottom, blends out the best, but as I said, it will travel.

Out of these four, I rate the Bourjois Khol & Contour the highest.  Taking into consideration all factors, it's the best all round performer, and, when I do wear black liner, the one I reach for the most.

What's your favourite black pencil liner?

Mac Monday: Dangerous Cuvee Paint Pot

For reasons still unknown to me, I journeyed to Westfield on the 30th December where I accidentally fell into Mac, and somehow walked out with the Dangerous Cuvee Paint Pot from the new Cham Pale collection.  I truly don't know how this happened, but I am very glad it did.  Having seen various swatches online, the Cham Pale collection didn't appeal to me, but Paint Pots are my favourite make up item - definitely from Mac, possibly in the world - so it seemed rude not to take a peek as I was in the vicinity.  There are four new Paint Pot shades in this collection, three of which deal with the nude/gold/cream/pale end of the colour spectrum - and are very beautiful - and then there's Dangerous Cuvee, a grey/silver/pale blue shade, not too dissimilar to Benefiit's Creaseless Cream shadow in Skinny Jeans.

Now, all these Paint Pots are very shimmery, bordering on glittery, and apply very sheer, but they are buildable.  I've taken quite a few pictures to try to give you a good idea of the shades.  The swatch on the left is one swipe, the one on the right is a few layers.

There is a definite blue tone to it; I want to say a denim shade, but I'm not sure that explains it well enough.

I've only worn it on it's own so far - with a grey eyeliner - and it looked great.  Subtle but brightening.  I have swatched it underneath three different Mac shadows though so you can see how it looks.  Firstly, here it is underneath Copperplate (left) and Scene (right).

It looks great under both - they're both matte shadows but Dangerous Cuvee transforms them into shimmery, metallic shadows that are unlike anything else I own.

I also tried it underneath Carbon.  I've been left totally cold by Carbon and struggle to find a use for it, but maybe now I have this Paint Pot, I will use it more.  It really does create a stunning, shimmering finish, almost a dark grey rather than a black.

So overall, I'm delighted a had a brief and illegal (am trying not to spend any money for a while) dalliance at my Mac counter, and imagine I'll be wearing Dangerous Cuvee a lot over the coming months.

Have you bought this or anything else from the Cham Pale collection?

Steamcream review

Steamcream came onto the scene (my scene, anyway) sometime in 2009, and I'm the first to admit I initially paid attention to it because of the packaging.  It comes in a medium-sized aluminium tin, the design on which varies immensely.  I don't know if there's any method to the tin designs, but I've seen leopard print, florals, peacocks, crystals, fruit, stripes, animals...basically, a plethora of patterns to suit any taste.  My one is a Union Jack design, bought last year from Liberty.  Steamcream is priced at £10, seemingly wherever you buy it from, which is pleasing.

The USP of Steamcream is that it's a multipurpose cream infused with unrefined steam (?!) for maximum absorption.  It can also be used anywhere on the body, but I happen to be using it as face cream.  It also claims to be suitable for all skin types, and uses locally sourced fresh, natural and traceable ingredients.  So far, so good.  It's certainly a little different from other creams on the market.  I admit that when I bought it, it was pretty much purely for the packaging, and it sat unopened in a drawer for the whole summer, until I'd used up my previous moisturiser and came to need something a little richer for the colder months.

As I've documented on here, my skin is oily with the occasionaly dry patch, I have enlarged pores across my nose and cheeks and am prone to the odd cracking spot or two, so tread carefully when it comes to choosing face creams.  The first thing to note about Steamcream is the smell.  To me it smells quite strongly medicinal, with a hint of lavender thrown in.  I personally like it, and once applied you can't smell it at all, it's just in the tin, however, if scented face products make you queasy, I would steer clear of this.

Secondly, the texture is, well, weird.  To the eye, it looks like it's very thick and creamy.  It's a pure white cream (don't know why that's important) that initially looks quite rich and heavy.

However, when you go to 'pick some up', you'll find that it's in fact very runny, with more of a lotion-like consistency.  This pleased me, but I wasn't sure how well it would sink into the skin.

I am delighted to say that it sinks into the skin AMAZINGLY.  It's bizarre - it practically disappears as soon as you start massaging it in.  It absorbs so fast, you could be forgiven for thinking it won't actually do anything, as it leaves no residue whatsoever, and leaves your skin looking like you don't have any moisturiser on at all.  But, somehow, it moisturises better than anything I've ever tried, and, crucially, doesn't leave my skin feeling or looking oily, shiny, greasy, anything like that.  I'm truly amazed.  It doesn't irritate, it leaves a good base for applying foundation (although I always use a primer anyway) and it keeps any dry patches well and truly at bay.

I can't rate Steamcream highly enough.  It honestly looks and initally feels like it won't do anything, but it has kind of transformed my skin.  Not visibly, it has to be said, but in terms of overall finish and controlling oil levels, I can't fault it.  If you're after high-performance anti-ageing skincare, however, I'm not sure this is the product for you.  I think I'd prefer it in a tube though, not because I don't love the quirky tins, but because they can get messy and I think tubes are more hygenic, but apart from that, I give Steamcream a ginormous Pixie Thumbs Up.

Buy it here.

RMK Irresistible Lips lipstick

Snapped up in the ASOS sale a couple of months ago, this is the first product I've owned from the RMK line.  RMK is a Japanese line created by make up artist Rumiko, the philosophy of which is to help people enhance their natural beauty with the products.  Any help I can get, please.  I paid £10 for it, reduced from £15.  I chose the shade Orange Pink.  The first thing to note is how much I like the packaging.   A cute silver box with a sleek silver lipstick inside.

Although £10 (or even £15) for a lipstick doesn't put it in the luxury category, for me, the rest of the products in the range are definitely priced in the luxury bracket, but this lipstick doesn't 'feel' particularly expensive.  The packaging, whilst lovely to look at, is lightweight and almost a little flimsy; I'm happy with it for a tenner, but would have been slightly miffed if I'd paid £15 for it, I think.  However, what really counts is the product, and this one is a beauty.  I selected Orange Pink totally at random.  I've not seen RMK in the flesh, and often online swatches are a load of bollocks - "Hello, Mac? Yes, I'm talking about you." - so I just picked this and hoped for the best. 

It's probably more of a summer colour, being a bright coral, but I've been wearing it throughout this bleakest of bleak winters and love it.  In the bullet, it looks like a very bright, almost hot pink colour.

However, once swatched, it's a gorgeous sheer and glossy bright coral, very wearable and flattering.

You can see the gloss, and it looks and stays like that on the lips too.  I love it.  However.  As lovely as I think this product is, I can't rate it any more highly than my beloved 17 Mirror Shine lipsticks, which are a fraction of the price and offer the same finish (and a fairly decent colour range to boot).  I am pleased I bought this, and it has piqued my interest in the RMK line, but I feel it might be slightly overpriced given that it does nothing a drugstore brand can't do.  You can buy the RMK Irresistible Lips here.