Review | Bare Minerals Make Your Move Marvelous Moxie Lipstick

A little bit of sun hits London and the nude lipsticks come out to play - in my case anyway - I've been wearing bright purples for the last week to remind myself that it is actually June so I need an excuse to tune things down a bit.

As you may or may not know - and you really should know - I attended a Blogger photoshoot with Bare Minerals a few weeks back to celebrate their recently launched Marvellous Moxie Lipstick Range.

The Marvellous Moxie Lipsticks are brand spanking new and come in 18 lipstick shades as well as complimenting Lipglosses and Lipliners. I was given Make Your Move which is a creamy, pink-brown shade by Bare Minerals and I thought a little lipstick review was in place.

I think the Marvellous Moxie lipsticks are the only lipsticks I know that come with instructions and trust me, you need to read those directions if you actually want to open the lipstick rather than fiddle around with it for 5 minutes. To open this lipstick you have to press that little button by the side, this will release the cover for you to remove.

Make Your Move is ridiculously creamy. I heard it was supposed to be a Satin finish but this baby glides on like butter in a hot pan  . . . ok maybe thats not the right imagery but this lipstick is very hydrating and yes creamy - said that 3 times now, haven't I??

Anyway I love the pigmentation and formula of this shade. I would wear it normally with a lipliner and a bit of concealer for a neater application but  I love how well it looks as I had seriously dry lips when I tried this on and you can't even tell!!!!

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Estee Lauder's Pure Colour Cheek Rush in Pink Patent

Toted as ‘the new way to blush” Estee Lauder’s New Pure Colour Cheek Rush in Pink Patent is a buildable water-light gel blush, designed to brighten your face with a lightweight and innovative gel that gives cheeks a pop of sheer color for a fresh-faced, natural finish.

Pink Patent (RRP. £24) can only be described a sheer Barbie pink – which is super freaky when you consider that my iPod suddenly switched to Aqua – Barbie Girl while I was taking these photograph (I didn’t even know I owned that song, I swear!!!). While it initially pumps out a strong neon pink and blends into the skin like a silky dream, I feel that Pink Patent is just too sheer and light a colour to easily show up on my dark skin. I would have to apply many layers to get this colour to show up which probably devoids the whole “sheer-finish” aspect of this blush.

Pink Patent is effortless beautiful. I adore it's gold cap and it's  easy-to-use plastic nozzle (which is even indented to fit your finger. There are 4 shades to get in the Cheek Rush Collection - Techno Jam, X-Pose Rose, Hot Fuse and Pink Patent as well as co-ordinating lipsticks and glosses for you to pair your cheeks to.

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Estee Lauder's Pure Colour Cheek Rush in X-Pose Rose

Cited as "so unique . . . your cheeks have never blushes liked this before" Estee Lauder’s New Pure Colour Cheek Rush in X-Pose Rose is a sheer,, buildable water-light gel blush, designed to brighten your face with a lightweight and innovative gel that gives cheek a pop of sheer color for a fresh-faced, natural finish

While X-Pose Rose (RRP. £24) is not described a cheek stain on the Estee Lauder website, this gel blush does dry to a gorgeous wine shade that looks amazing on dark skin. This is the kind of shade that I practically live in during the winter months and with a wear time of 6-8 hours, I can already predict what will be on my cheeks while I’m tucked away under my scarf and beanie.

 X-Pose Rose is lightweight and absorbs into the skin easily, making it effortlessly easy to apply . . . and don't even need to use a brush - if you don't mind stained fingertips *wiggles fingers*.

There are 4 shades to get in the Cheek Rush Collection - Techno Jam, X-Pose Rose, Hot Fuse and Pink Patent as well as co-ordinating lipsticks and glosses for you to pair your cheeks to.

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Estee Lauder's Pure Colour Cheek Rush in Hot Fuse

Described by Tom Pecheux as an “acqua color” Estee Lauder’s New Pure Colour Cheek Rush in Hot Fuse is a buildable water-light gel blush, designed to brighten your face with a lightweight and innovative gel that gives cheek a pop of sheer color for a fresh-faced, natural finish.

The Pure Color Cheek Rush is packaged in a high-gloss-finish pump bottle with a silk-screened golden collar that matches the concentrated shade.Hot Fuse is definitely an on-trend deep-orange SS13 shade. We have been going ga-ga in the beautysphere over orange in 2013 and Estee Lauder have certainly taken that in mind when they launched Hot Fuse/

 I find that Hot Fuse dries into a warm red-orange cheek stain which is great for longevity as I found that my swatch lasted between 6-8 hours which is great  if you happen to be anything like me and hate touching up your makeup during the day - Ain't noone have time for that. I personally love anything in a pump as it make it that much easier for you to slip this blush into your makeup case without fear of it opening and covering everything.


There are 4 shades to get in the Cheek Rush Collection - Techno Jam, X-Pose Rose, Hot Fuse and Pink Patent as well as co-ordinating lipsticks and glosses for you to pair your cheeks to.

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Win Estee Lauder’s Pure Colour Cheek Rush in Pink Patent

Salutations

To celebrate, my new blog layout and moving from Blogger to Wordpress later on this week - I can't wait for you all to see my new layout *happy squeaks*- I will be giving away Estee Lauder’s New Pure Colour Cheek Rush in Pink Patent (RRP. £24)  AND a MAC lipstick of your choice to a lucky Epiphannie A reader!!!!!!

A review for Pink Patent; as well as X-Pose Rose and Hot Fuse will be up tomorrow, but as I found that Pink Patent was not a good colour match for me,  I'm passing it on to you to make the most of this amazingly lightweight and lasting blush

As you know my giveaway always includes a silly question and this giveaway is no different. As Pink Patent is a gorgeous Barbie Pink and seems to trigger Aqua's Barbie Girl on my iPod, here's this giveaway's question:-

 If Barbie is so popular....then why do you have to buy her friends? 

If you are interested in entering – Click Here - and remember there is no wrong or right answer and the porpuse of this question is for you to have some fun with it, so go wild!!!!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway Terms and Conditions

1. For details on how to enter, and for the question to this competition, please click on the link This giveaway in UK based
2. You MUST supply your email address to be eligible for this competition 
3. For bonus entries, please follow the instructions given
4. This giveaway will end on the . . . of July 2013
5. The winner of the Pink Patent Pure Colour will be the person who answer’s my giveaway question in the funniest or most original way
6. If chosen as my giveaway winner, expect to receive a twitter/facebook notification as well as an email.    
7. If no response has been received from the winner in 48 hours, another winner will be chosen.

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IMATS 2013 Haul

On Saturday, I went to makeup heaven and spazzed out at the NARS counter - true story!!! I know I love to drone on and on about the simplest thing but let's face it this is probably the best way to summarise everything that happened to me at the IMATS 2013 in a sentence. 

This is my second time attending the IMATS (International Makeup Artist Trade Show) but the first time attending on a saturday. Last year, when I went on a Sunday almost all the good deals were gone which was a bit disappointing but this year I was prepared to fight the crowds to get what I wanted . . . and as an extra precaution, (for the safety of other of course) I made sure to go with Grace to reign me in so I didn't look like a complete nutter.

I like to think I was very good on Saturday but I know Grace and Mez would probably disagree (might have something to do with me sitting down on the floor at the NARS counter - very friendly staff btw). From NARS I bought the Laguna highlighter, Marina & Never Say Never lip pencils, Trans Siberian & Fast Ride lipsticks, J. Mendell Fall 2007 Lip palette, Surabaya Duo eyeshadow palette and Lokoum cream blush.

At the OCC Makeup stall, I finally got myself some Lip Tars!!!! These have been on my must-have list for months and the pigmentation on these babies are just out of this world. I think I got my beauty blender from the same stall or the one right next to it but in all honesty, everything is a blur right now. Finally I picked up a blush brush and contour brush from Bdellium, a Bend Nye Ebony Translucent Powder, N8 lipstick from Makeup Forever AND 6 gorgeous lashes from Eldora.

Personally I love that NARS were an exhinitor this year but I also think the selection of exhibitors this year was much smaller that last year. I mean Sleek and Illamasqua weren't even there, Can you believe that???? Despite this I can't wait for next year. I'm going to take even more money and head straight to the NARS counter. No discussion. 

I hope you loved my haul and please don't forget you can follow Epiphanniea via Bloglovin and Twitter. I'm going to switch to Wordpress soon so makeup sure you subscribe to something so you still get my blog updates!!!!

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Review | Clayspray Pore Refining White Clay

I have never used a clay mask before. 

I haven't used one because my mum told me a story of how she once used a clay mask and feel asleep in it and ended up looking like a pensioner for almost two weeks  . . . and I don't know about you but that's a very effective shock tactic. Now I obviously know you are not meant to sleep in a clay mask but    my mum's story has acted as a deterrent for many years until now. A few weeks ago, Clayspray - a Spanish Skincare Brand - launched their Sprayable Claymasks into the UK beauty market and gave me their lovely mask to try out. 

The Clayspray Masks are very unique as they are 60-65% pure clay in an emulsified formulation. Normal claymasks only have 10-15% clay in their formulations so not only is this the purest clay mask in the world but thanks to the way that the Clayspray products are made and their emulsion formula, the masks last a lot longer than clays that come in tubs, sachets and powder etc. because they are not exposed to air the minute they are opened, they do not start to deteriorate and get all hard/ dried out 

I was give their Pore Refining White Clay Masque (RRP £44.50) and their H20 Hydrate Mineral Water  in a Spray (£17.50) to try out and let me just admit that these pictures were taken a while ago - as I still have hair - but here's a quick gif-torial on how to use the Clayspray masks.

My tip for using any of the Clayspray Masks is to moisturise your face with a facial oil afterwards as your face might feel a bit tight afterwards but I do quite like the results of this mask. I don't normally do mask's very often - once every month is fine by me - and I have never used a clay mask before this but I did feel that my pores looked smaller and my face felt very supple.

Overall I quite like the Clayspray Pore Refining Mask and think it's price-worthy but I honestly feel that the H20 Mineral Water Spray is a teensy bit overpriced for water in a can and I will find a cheaper alternative when it runs out.

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Recipe | Colourful Salmon

In my house Salmon reigns supreme. It's one of those dishes that everyone loves and someone would take a large bite of the minute you turn you back.

I haven't come across anyone who doesn't like Salmon . . .  and quite frankly, I'm not sure I want to. Salmon is one of those dishes that I could trust a complete novice to make and not give me food poisoning. I promised Laalaa a week ago that I would make something with Salmon inspired to suit her vegetarian palette and true to my promise, here it is.

As I'm trying to be quite healthy and avoid fatty sides, I've paired the Salmon with a lovely colourful carrot, cucumber and red & green lettuce salad with a bit of vinegar on the side. Yum!!!

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Review | Simple Oil Balancing Moisturiser

Back-to-back skincare product reviews? What is going on Annie??

Nothing.

I just felt that I should review another skincare product that I've been loving lately because I've almost finished it and it was the oil controlling moisturiser I paired with the Facial Oil I reviewed on Tuesday so it kinda works that I should review them fairly close together

Baobella sent me the Simple Oil Balancing Moisturiser just before I went to NewYork and after 3 or 4 months  I can say that for a moisturiser with a RRP of under £5, this is surprisingly good. The Oil Balancing Moisturiser is an oil-controlling un-fragranced moisturiser that contains a blend of Zinc PCA and Corn Strarh (?????) to mattify and gently absorb excess oil from your face.

As I don't have oily skin, I can't tell how it would work for someone with naturally oily but as I was intentionally making my skin oily I found that this worked very well as it didn't weigh my skin down, have an overly perfumed smell and had great oil controlling powers (Yes, I am visualising this with a Superman cape right now). Personally I feel that this is an amazing moisturiser as you are getting 75ml worth of product for under £5.

Since using Simple's Oil Balancing Moisturiser I have tried out their Facial Wipes but suffered an allergic reaction (again!!!), so if you happen to have sensitive skin and allergic to Fruit/Flower extracts I would advise you to check the ingredient list before you buy rather than make an assumption that all their products would work for your skin.

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Review | Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Bronzer in Rich Deep

I believe a wise woman once said:-

 . . . or I could just be making that up (which is highly likely). Esteé Lauder's Bronze Goddess Bronzing Powder in Rich Deep (RRP. £30) has been stared at (because it's very pretty), poked and played with ever seen I was gifted it by Estee Lauder almost 3 weeks ago but I really couldn't decide how I felt about this bronzer so kept delaying this post . . . but then I realised that this Bronzer is actually LIMITED EDITION and the longer I dilly-dally around, the harder it is for you guys to run over to Boots, House of Fraser or Selfridges to pick it up (My bad!).

Bronze Goddess' Bronzer in Rich Deep really has me stuck on the Fence.

I love that it's matte-with-a-hint-of-shimmer formula because it looks gorgeous once the light hits it and it comes with an amazing tipped-brush to help you with your contouring. The Con's for me, is the packaging. While my bronzer didn't arrive cracked like Adrienne's, the mirror keeps popping off everytime I open and close it and that is really irritating for me as I can't find my super glue and I like the mirror too much to take it out!!

Despite my annoyance with the Bronze Goddess Packaging, there is no denying that it is absolutely beautiful but I don't think it's dark enough to truely act as a bronzer for darker skin tones.

If you look at my swatch above, (you might have to squint a bit) you can see the slight red/bronze colour of the bronzer against my skin. I honestly believe that if the Bronze Goddess Bronzer was a shade deeper or had a stronger red tone then I would probably go and buy this in bulk. As it stands I don't think as a bronzer I could use by itself without a bit of help from a contouring powder HOWEVER I have been using it as a face powder. It's the perfect alternative to my MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Dark Deep as it's subtile shimmer makes me look very healthy and natural.

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