Oh Rimmel, What have you done with Zooey Deschanel?


No, really. Where have they put her?? As this just isn't the beautiful face of Zooey Deschanel that I am use to seeing and admiring.



Basically she has been photoshopped to a point that makes her unrecognizable...which makes me think - why did Rimmel even want her in there advertising campaign in the first place.


As you can see in the above image -
Her iris/pupil have been dramatically enlarged. 
Her nose has been shaded to change the shape of it. 
Her lips have been made fuller.
Even her cupids bow has been widened.
Her eyebrows have been re-shaped. 
All pores/wrinkles have been removed. 
OH, and I can't forget the HUGE false eyelashes. 
And why?.....So that she can look like a Vector image or something from the 2001 movie A.I.

 



As for the advert itself - it is just absolutely ridiculous.....(well all mascara ad's are) but how can this be showing of the effects of the mascara.

I even wonder if there new mascara was even used in these images.

As for the before and after images...really words just fail me here.
 


One word Rimmel - Ridiculous.

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Matte Love


 So as the title suggests, I want to talk matte nails. Now I know alot of people don't like them but I thought I would show you all afew different styles of wearing matte nails. 

My most favourite way of using a matte top coat at the moment is over black nail polish. 
Not in a million years would I even considered wearing black polish unless it was Halloween but for some reason using a matte top coat just takes that 'gothic' edge off the nail polish and makes it look quite chic! If you really don't believe me - just try it and you see what I mean. 

I forgot to say I think all matte top coats are much of a muchness really...there are so many out now and they all give the same effect so I would personally go for the cheapest! I currently use No7's Limited Edition topcoat which is £7.25 however Rimmel now do one and I'm pretty sure the Boots 17 range are bringing one out in September for around £3-4. 


Anyways, another way I have tried to use a matte top coat is painting the whole nail matte then using a normal top coat on the tips of the nails. I think this would be maily effective with all dark shades of nail polish so that the gloss tips show up more, if you get what I mean. 
The nail polish above is Overexposed in South Beach (what a stupid name) by OPI.



Ok, I can't say I love this but it is quite nice and christmassy? maybe.
To be honest it reminds me of christmas puddings..not sure why though! 


This is also quite boring but I love the nail polish which is Peacock by 17. It's just a really nice vibrant shade that is totally transformed when you apply a matte top coat to something that looks that bit different and a little plastic like! 


I'm not sure if I like the base colour..which is a griege type shade by Nails Inc. But I certainly like the matte Houndstooth. I think I will have to master this abit more so I can sport this in Autumn and Winter with a better shade underneath. Either a nice nude colour..maybe posh polish by Eyeko or a deep red/burgundy shade.


Lastly are the ultimate mannequin nails! Actually slightly creepy in person as there are very plastic like and will morph into your skin tone if you have pale skin like me. But there definitely make your hands look very neat and chic! 
Still slightly too perfect looking though! 

Just on abit of a side note, I have to apologise for posting so many nail related posts at the moment! However banning all skincare
and only using soap & water has made me struggle slightly with what to write about. But I'm hoping this will mean more makeup related posts and makeup reviews as after all my blog is called MakeupSavvy! 
 
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If You Could Bring Back One Beauty Product, What Would It Be?


Ok, I'm going to cheat and ignore my own question as there are quite afew discontinued products that I use to love. So feel free to do this same! 

I really wish when it came to discontinuing products companies would look at there worst products first. 

For example - the lovely Boots Original Beauty Formula Range (which you can see above). It may have been Limited Edition...but still. Why would Boots create a whole new line that's only Limited Edition and then discontinue it. It was cheap...the packaging was lovely, especially the glass bottled items and most of all it was unique in the fact it was all traditional ingredients and really simple for the skin. 
My favourite product out of the whole range was the skin tonic - made with glycerin and rose water. What has it been replaced for I hear you cry...a glycerin and rose water toner in a plastic Johnson's Baby Oil like bottle that is very granny friendly..for the same price! 

Don't Boots get that grannies don't use toner! 

Anyways...I will stop with the ranting. 
My other sadly discontinued product that I really do lust after is...




Fuzzy Peach Perfume Oil  - I may not have shopped in The Body Shop for over a year now as Nestle own the company and I personally don't like the company (that is another story!). But if they did bring this back I would be very tempted to buy it!
It was discontinued when I was in my late teens if I'm right in thinking and I truly did love it - the smell was so unique and umm very peachy!




Last but not least...isn't really a discontinued item, but it may as well have been . Only last year Pears decided to totally change there iconic soap for much more harsher ingredients. One of the harsher ingredients being Sodium Lauryl Sulfate which I don't use, they basically changed it in to a totally different product that isn't nice. 

I know these aren't the most interesting of products but they are ones that I really would love to come back! 

What would you bring back if you could?? 
  
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A Cheap way of achieving Gradient Nails


I really need to get back into doing some nice nail tutorials so I thought this would be a nice simple one that most people like the look of and that's gradient nails or colour changing nails. 

I do promise to do the tutorial on the Alexander McQueen Tribute nails next week though! 

 So a gradient manicure normally consist of using 5 different nail polishes that range from light to dark in a specific colour. However that actually means owning 5 different shades of one colour. Which of course can be quite costly and you may not want to own numerous shades of one colour!
But hopefully this will show you how to save money and how you can create gradient nails in any colour you own. However be warned this is not the quickest of manicures.

Barry M Mushroom Gradient Nails


What you will need -  
  • Your main nail polish that you want to create the gradient with.
  • A white nail polish.
  •    A grey or black nail polish. 
  • A cheap or old top coat - This will be used for the brush not the polish.
  • A small pot or container - I just use a old lid from a beauty product.
  • Also nail polish remover and tissue to clean out the container. 

1. Paint both middle finger nails with your main polish - In my case it's Mushroom by Barry M.



2.  First create the lighter shades by dropping in quite afew drops of your main nail polish. Then next to the nail polish in the pot drop in only afew drops of white nail polish. 

3. Mix together using the brush from the top coat nail polish - there is no need to clean the brush of the clear nail polish as it won't affect the colour. Mix until both polishes are blended in and look a shade lighter than the original nail polish. If it's looking too light or dark just add afew drops of the colour you need and mix.  

4. Paint the index fingers with the nail polish from the pot using the top coat brush that you mixed it with. Apply a thick enough coat so that it is opaque as you will find the polish in the container can go tacky quite quickly. So you won't have enough time to apply two coats. 


5. Next add more white nail polish to the container and mix. This will be the shade for the thumb nails.

6. This is the part where you can be lazy if you want and use another container if you don't want to risk getting nail polish remover on your nails. However I personally pour a little remover into it then stuff tissue into the pot and twirl it around removing most of the polish. If there is still some in the container it's no big deal. Then just wipe the top coat brush with a tissue that has abit of nail polish remover on it. 


7. Next to create the dark shades mix quite afew drops of your main nail polish with the grey or black nail polish (if you are using black you will need less ofcourse). This will create the shade for your ring fingers. 

8. After painting the ring fingers add afew more drops of the grey polish to create a darker shade for your little finger. If it becomes too dark just add some of your main colour to lighten it slightly. 

9. Paint your little finger nails and then your done!


So as long as you have a white and a grey (or black) you can create gradient nails in any colour you wish- as you can see from the image above!

As for cleaning everything up you can either throw away the container or clean it the same way as in step 6. As for the top coat brush - just soak it in abit of nail polish remover or use a tissue with some remover to clean it. It probably won't look that clean but you can still pop it back into the bottle of top coat for future gradient nails so the brush won't dry out. 


  Hopefully you have found this slightly helpful & also given you an idea on how you can lighten (or darken) any nail polish.


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NOTD - All About Face Scarlett Red



After discovering Barry M's Bright Red last week I was on the hunt for another lovely red nail polishes - I wanted something abit more wearable that would suit what ever I was wearing or doing. 
 So while shopping at Tesco avoiding the skincare aisle (due to this) I spotted this lovely raspberry red nail polishes at only £1!! 

Yes, I really said £1 !
 
(2 coats of Scarlett Red with no topcoat)

Okay, the bottle isn't all that pretty with it's white top and cheap All About Face sticker. But do I really care! 
What is important to me is the colour and the colour is perfect. It also applies really well for being so cheap and there are no streaks. 

As for chipping it does have quite abit of tip wear after 2 days however a good topcoat combats that!

Other than that this is a great nail polish for such a cheap price that I thought I'd share with you all.
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Beautiful Blushers from No7

As the £5 No7 Voucher's are back I thought it would be a good time to mention afew products by No7. 

No7 have four types of blushers in there range - a powder blusher compact, a cream tint compact, a blush tint cream in stick format and a mineral powder blush.

The only one I don't own is the powder blush compact. I do own one of the cream tint blush compacts however due to moving this month it is packed away. But when I do find it I shall review it - which will hopefully before the No7 £5 voucher offer ends on the 12th September. As it is one of my favourite blushes by No7. 

However the two products that I am going to review are :- 
No7 Blush Tint Cream Blush  - in Blossom and Clove £9.75
No7 Mineral Loose Powder Blusher - in Soft Damson £8.75 

Blush Tint Cream Blush 
Blossom & Clove £9.75 each
 
(L-R - Clove and Blossom) 

No7 describes this product as a cream blush that glides and blends easily over the cheekbones to highlight and add a hint of colour to the face. 

I would describe them as hit and miss! Looking at the two shades I thought I would love Blossom and Clove would maybe be too dark for me. However I couldn't of been more wrong. 

(See all swatches below)

Blossom - Is very sheer...so sheer in fact that if you over blend this you will have a job of even seeing it on the cheek. I found applying this with my fingers the best way to apply this and patting the product on so not to blend it out too much.  However once I sorted out how best to apply this, it is quite a nice rose shade that is quite flattering on pale skin.

Clove - This is poles apart from Blossom, it is so much more pigmented and blends out perfectly. This also really does highlight the cheekbones well and works with both fair and dark skin tones. I found the best way of applying this - as it was quite pigmented, was just one swipe over the cheek then blending it out with the fingers.

(Only 3g of product)

However I do have one gripe about the Blush Tints and that is the amount of product. For £9.75 which might as well be £10 you get only 3g of product. The compact version of the cream tints (unfortunately it's a different colour range) provide you with 6g of product for £8.75. 
So unless there is a specific shade that you really love with the Blush Tints I would definitely try out the No7 Cheek Tint Blusher 6g as you will be double the amount of product for less! 


Overall - I'm not amazed at these...I love Clove but I rarely use Blossom as the pigment just isn't there. So I would highly recommend you swatch all three of the shades before you think about buying. The one thing I did like about the product was how natural they looked on the skin alot softer and warmer than any powder blush. So on the whole these are a so-so product. 


The Swatches  

The swatches above are just one swipe of the product with no blending - however the Blush Tints do really blend out. 

Mineral Perfection Blusher 
Soft Damson - £8.75
 

No7 describe this product as being light, silky and easy to blend, so it gives your cheeks a natural shimmer. (This was taken from the website and to be honest it is a terrible description of the product) 

However this is how the box describes it - Made with a combination of soft focus pigments to give the perfect colour for a naturally radiant complexion. (Much better for quite a quality product)


The Mineral Perfection Blusher comes with 4g of products and also included is a little brush which is quite dense and perfect for applying the blush onto the cheekbones. 
As for the shade it is such a soft shade of damson that is perfect for Autumn and the colder months as it's quite a warm flush of colour. As far as pigment goes it is nicely pigmented and you don't need alot of the product at all on the brush - which does mean it will last quite along time. 

As for negatives I really can't see any - it really is as described. If you are into soft flawless looking blushes then this is for you. The other shade in the range is Rose Pink.



Overall - This is a really nice quality product that really lasts on the skin and with it being mineral based it suitable for anyone with oily skin that can break out with cream blushers. 
With a good base of foundation this can really look flawless and natural which is what I love about this product. 
Also with the blusher including a brush and being boxed this would make a perfect present! 

Looking at the full range of blushers available at No7 I would highly recommend the Mineral Perfection Blusher for a powder blush or the Cheek Tint Blusher for a cream blush which is a huge 6g of product.  
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Round-up of Beauty Twitpic's - August 1.2



~ Hurray!!!!!!!!! lol I love hitting pan- makes me feel less guilty



~ Four thirty lull. Need me some sugar... #rankinshoot


@Makeup_Savvy (That's me if you hadn't noticed!)

~ A rushed attempt but using NYX Loose Pigment Penny as Nail Polish. Very easy to do!



~ Love the new Halloween hand sanitizer names from bbw :)



~ First time I've seen a barry m stand like this...

I have to admit that I love when people post twitpics and so I am hoping everyone is enjoying this kind of post especially if you have missed them or you don't use twitter. 

If you do have a twitter account and do tweet photos make sure to tell me so I can do some stalkin' !
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A Flawless Campaign by Laura Mercier


After seeing this on the Laura Mercier website I really had to blog about it. 
Laura Mercier wants to know what is flawless? Whether it's found in beauty, confidence, love or happiness she wants to know what flawless means to you. 

There's no signing up or having to subscribe to the newsletter in order to submit your opinion. But the amazing thing about it...with every response they will donate $1.00 to the Gulf Relief Foundation to help restore the Gulf to it's previously flawless state. 
The campaign is ongoing until December and it literally takes seconds to submit your opinion on what is truly flawless. 

It's also really interesting to see other people's submissions and views.


 
Here are some of my favourites....

The smile of my grandmother's face - Hoon C.

Not having to worry about being flawless - Alison B. 

The comfort of feeling so close with someone that you don't need to fill the silence - Roger M.

The first warm day after a cold winter is flawless - Noora R.

The skin I had when I was 12 - Lauren B. 


To submit your answer to 'What is flawless?' and to help make the Gulf flawless once again visit lauramercier.com
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Going Back to Basics


As a beauty blogger you would expect me to love all lotions & potions and guess what..I do! I love applying my Avene moisture mask, cleansing with No7's Hot Cloth Cleanser and trying anything that even suggests it will tighten the pores around my nose.

However you would think with everything I apply to my skin, it would atleast be even and blemish free most of the time. But that sadly isn't the case. 
Over the past year my skin has gone from being oily/combination to now just being oily even on parts of my cheeks. Which means spots and blackheads oh and afew lovely whiteheads.

left without makeup                       right with foundation & concealer

As you can see my skin isn't in the best of condition - but this is the worst it gets really.

So I have decided to ditch all the products I use (ofcourse if this makes my skin worse I will start using various products that I feel I need) 
This means no face scrub, no toner, no makeup remover, no cleanser and no moisturizer.
Just boring old soap and water!

I'm sure by now you are thinking what the hell am I doing! Especially with not using moisturizer. 
As I'm sure most of you believe all skin needs moisture even oily skin and I do agree. However I don't believe that the lack of moisturizing will create more oil or on the flip side leave my skin dry. I'm hoping my skin will start to regulate itself and become abit more balanced.

I think it's important to point out that I currently use an oil-free moisturizer by Nivea that I have been using for the last year and it is a good moisturizer however over the last free months I feel I'm just moisturizing for the sake of it. 

As for my soap of choice there are two (just so my skin doesn't get too bored!)


SebaMed Cleansing Bar - This is something I have been using for around 6 months (you can read my full review on it here) You may also notice that I also mentioned Pears soap in the same post. Which I will not be using and haven't done so since it radically changed it's ingredients - but you can read my rant about it here.
SebaMed really seems to balance out my skin and it's strong or even that soap like. It's also only £2.50 a bar. 

Simple Pure Soap - This is something I've never tried before. However I bought this due to the lack of ingredients (it only has around 7 ingredients) and it's only 85p! Yes, I'm a cheapskate. 

So my new regime with be to wash my face twice a day using either soap and if I feel I need to exfoliate I will use a muslin cloth or a scrublet thing!

Also carrying on the theme with makeup. 

I have decided no more primers or translucent powder. 


Just foundation applied with a damp sponge and oil control blotting papers to reduce any shine.



I do feel this is abit radical however it is only a test at the end of the day. In which I'm hoping my skin will start to improve. However if it doesn't work I doubt using less chemical and less products will cause it to become any worse.
I'm going to try this for exactly a month (maybe 3 weeks if I'm really bored)!
Then compare the image above with the final results and how my skin compares. I really hope this helps & look forward to showing you all the results!


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OPI - Coney Island Cotton Candy


I think this has to be one of the few nail polishes that I have a love/hate relationship with. 
I love the brush, I love the shade, I even love the name. However I hate how sheer it is and how it applies. 
There is no applying it in thin layers and building up the colour until it's opaque. More applying it thickly with every coat until on your fourth it's nearly there on the opaque front. Which means there is a 90% chance that you will get an imprint of something or other on your nails before they have finished drying and if you apply this even afew hours before going to sleep you will be waking up with bed nails which you can see Zara from
Mouldy Fruit sporting here.
It also shows how lovely Coney Island can look on a more olive, darker skin tone.


Basically it is a pain to apply, which means I don't use it all that often and when I do I make sure I apply this when I will not be doing anything so that I can let it dry fully! 
But like a say once this is on it looks perfect. I should also mention in the top image I had applied 3 coats so it's nearly opaque. 
In general I really do love nude nails and have quite afew however they are basically very similar. I'm sure alot of people (especially my boyfriend) would say they are all the same. But to me they are all very different. Maybe not in shade but definitely in consistency and also transparency. Which to be honest deserves a whole blogpost but I thought I would show you what three different nude nail polishes look like.

 

(L-R: OPI Coney Island, Eyeko Nude Polish, Revlon Nude Chic) 

The price ranges from £3.50 for the Eyeko polish to £10.00 for the OPI nail polish but these really do vary in how they apply and how opaque they go on.
I won't go into it now but this is the one type of nail polish that is worth googling before you go out and buy the specific product. As from experience there are alot of let down sheer nude nail polishes out there.

So expect a post in the near future on the best & worst nudes. I just need to think of an appropriate blog title that won't be searched for by unsavoury types!

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No7 £5 Voucher's Return!


I did mention this about two weeks ago now..however it was in a post about something else. So I doubt alot of you saw it really.

Also I thought it would be handy to point out the terms & conditions of the £5 vouchers as unless you have a voucher in your mitts you won't know what you can & can't buy with the voucher. If that makes sense!

The offer is valid until Sunday 12th September 2010 when you spend over £5 instore at Boots. If you order anything online and get it sent for free instore you don't get the voucher and the same applies for ordering online. 
 


As for redeeming the voucher...

  • The voucher can be spent on No7 or Ruby & Millie 
  • Cannot be redeemed against No7 products in Waitrose
  • Excludes all giftsets and price reduced items
  • Only one voucher can be redeemed per transaction 
  • No change can be given for orders under the value of £5 (there isn't very much for under that amount though) 
 There are other terms & conditions but they are the boring ones like 'photocopies' will not be accepted!

 

I do have some of my own tips though as to products being out of stock - something which is bound to happen when the offer is running.
  • Mainly if the item you want is out of stock don't be tempted to use the voucher on something else you didn't want, as Boots have deliveries daily. So it's worth asking if the product with be in the next day as 99% of the time it will. 
  • I have also noticed that not all of the No7 products are on the concession or stand. If you are looking for brushes there with be some of the stand but also with other branded  brushes and accessories 
  • And if you want to be abit naughty and not have to spend £5 instore to just get the voucher you can always have a little look on Ebay! But I didn't tell you that :)
I think I will be purchasing the cheek tint in Blossom & a new Quick Cover concealer.
 
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Xen-Tan Deep Bronze Vs. St Moriz Tanning Mousse


This is one of them posts that I have been meaning to do for months and kind of haven't got around to doing as there is no outright winner. 
Both products have both good & bad points however there is a huge price difference so I thought it was a post worth writing. 


The cheaper of the two products is ofcourse St Moriz (not St Moritz..which is what I thought it was called for afew months). This can be bought it spray or mousse format and costs around £2.99 for 150ml in discount shops like TK Maxx.
Xen Tan on the other hand comes it so many different formats & shades - however the one I have is a medium instant tan in Deep Bronze (slightly confusing) and costs £19.95 for 148ml.

So there is a big price difference in the products which I can hopefully point out the in's and out's of.

St. Moriz Instant Self Tanning Mousse

(One down side of St Moriz is how it stains the hands - this is the effect of it being on the skin for literally seconds. A mitt is essential with this tan!) 

So St. Moriz promotes itself as - 

Instant Bronzing - I have to agree with this, the mousse applies dark and gradually gets darker over afew hours. There is no need to wash of any guide colour the next morning. 


Long Lasting - I'm not to sure about this one. If you exfoliate well prior to applying the mousse it lasts 4-5 days then starts to get lighter. However I have found if you don't bother exfoliating or scrubbing any dry skin the tan can start looking patching by day 3/4. So it really does depend on how well you prepare your skin! 


Fast Drying - Yes! I think this is why I like St Moriz so much. It dries instantly and doesn't leave the skin tacky or sticky which means you can sit like a normal person straight after applying the tan rather than a robot! Having said that...I would not get dressed and go shopping on a hot day after applying this, as anywhere you sweat the tan will literally disappear. I find this is mainly in the inside elbow part of my arms...not a good look! 


No Streaks - Well if you apply any tan badly or quickly there will be streaks. If you spend time though applying the tan it will be even...however the tan does have a tendency to fade patchy. 

(For some reason I photographed my arm with the WRONG product...I used the mousse here and not the spray. As you can see there is some build up near my wrist. This was the result of re-applying it on the 4th day)

So here is a quick summary of the positive and negatives of St Moriz 

+ Natural tan..no orange however much you apply
+ Only £2.99 a bottle need I say more 
+ The bottle lasts a fairly long time 
+ Applies evenly and you can see it going on
+ Soaks into the skin and dries instantly
+ No smell 

- The main negative - it fades patchy! 
- Stains hands so you do need a mitt.
- Can be hard to do the face with a mousse or a spray
- If you want to use this continuously over afew months you can see a build up in drier areas.
- Not available in high street shops so abit hit & miss 
- The bottles leak around the cap!
- The spray version is messy

All in all this is really great value for money and leaves the skin looking very natural and sun kissed rather than orange. As someone with pale skin the tan looks fine and I would suggest if you have slightly tanned skin naturally it would work. However any darker I doubt this product would work. 

Xen-Tan Deep Bronze Instant Self-Tan 
 

Xen-Tan Deep Bronze Instant Self Tan describes itself as - 

Instant Bronzing - I cannot agree with this. As you can see the tan is a strange brown/green colour and when on the skin it looks abit muddy...nothing like the tan it turns into. So I really would say the brown/green colour is the guide colour which needs to be washed off the next day. I find if I don't my white hand towel is a lovely shade of brown once I've dried my face the next morning. 

Moisturizing Ingredients - I haven't overly noticed..but thinking back it does leave the skin soft and the tan doesn't dry the skin which other tans tend to do. I also personally think this helps the tan to last longer as the skin isn't dry. 

Long-wearing self tan - I definitely agree with this. This is the only tan I have found to last over a week and still look good. It also fades evenly and just goes lighter and lighter. 

(As you can see the Xen Tan is very natural looking - the photo was taken 4 days after applying the tan)

As for positive and negatives of the product...

+ A lovely even tan that can work on the lightest of skin and still look natural
+ Smells amazing for a self tanner - like a chocolate/vanilla scent
+ Not messy at all to apply, you can leave the bathroom as tidy as when you went in
+ As the product is a body lotion type product you can really make sure you have covered all areas 
+ Easy to apply to the face and ears
+ You can apply this with your hands which gives alot more control of the product & doesn't stain the hands while tanning (just make sure to wash the hands well!) 
+ The products can be purchased on there website here with 10% off & free delivery

- If you over rub the product into the skin it can remove some of the tan and look patchy.
- The same goes for using the Xen Tan mitt - It removes the tan & looks very odd. 
- You have to wait for the tan to dry, so it does feel tacky on the skin for about 30 minutes
- You have to wash the tan off after it has developed for it to look it's best
- The price - £20 for a self tanner can be alot to pay for most people. However it does last a long time 
- If you are darker skinned I doubt this tanner would even show up even though the product is advertised as being 'Deep Bronze' You would have look at the darker tanners in the range.

Overall - If you want a quality tan that doesn't take forever to apply and doesn't leave a mess. This is for you. However I would always apply this with my hands and not a mitt as the product doesn't react well to being over worked into the skin. 

I realize I haven't covered everything so if you have any questions about either products feel free to leave them in the comments & check back after a day or so! 
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