The Makeup Mavens Weekly Round-up

Welcome! Makeup Mavens present makeup you may have missed. We will recap the weeks past highlighted posts, always keeping you in-the-loop and feature the finest beauty finds to help you stay looking gorgeous!

This week, Hopelessly Devoted to Makeup had you beholding the regal-ness that is Giorgio Armani's Eyes To Kill in Purpura #03 

Lipstick Luvvies experimented with BECCA's Halcyon Days Palette. Pop on over and see what beautiful results she achieved! 

Love Song for My Lipgloss introduced us to the sheer loveliness that is Giorgio Armani's gloss d'armani. How many will you be picking up?

Mookie On The Bench focused her attention on  Sarah Chapman Skinesis Eye Recovery, an illuminating eye cream perfect for those dark circles!

Product Doctor is head over heels in love with Edward Bess' Luxury Eye Brush. Another beauty blogger falls for his charms!

Raspberry Rouge had us blushing over BECCA's Flowerchild Mineral Blush, and after reading her review, I'm lusting after that shade.

The Black Panties had us all experience some serious infatuation with her insane lashes thanks inpart to Geisha Ink Mascara+ ! 

Chantecaille Ecstasy Blush Swatches

Chantecaille is a brand I've wanted to try for a while now. I've heard so many good things about their products and I've come across some gorgeous swatches recently so I finally decided to take the plunge last week and ordered something from Space NK. I had trouble deciding on what to buy first from the brand (there are so many lovely things!), but after searching through what was available, I finally decided on a blush. 

I normally stick to really natural blush shades which add just a tiny hint of colour, so I was quite surprised at how much Ecstasy appealed to me. I'd describe the shade as quite a bright, dark raspberry colour with very subtle gold shimmer.

Chantecaille Ecstasy

Chantecaille Cheek colour: Ecstasy

The shade is a bit scary in the pan but looks very delicate and pretty on skin when it's a applied with a light hand. The formula is pigmented, silky smooth and blends with absolute ease. The gold shimmer is hardly visible on cheeks and like the Becca Flowerchild blush I swatched recently, it has a subtle, almost glowy finish.

Swatched really heavily on the left and Lightly on the right

I found the shade quite difficult to photograph, it still looks very bright and loud even in my lighter swatch. On cheeks, it's much more subtle and leaves a very pretty, sheer pink colour. I didn't have time to photograph what it looks like on yesterday, I will take a picture and update the post when I have time though.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, this is the first product I've tried from Chantecaille and I'm completely in love with it. The shade is beautiful, the formula feels soft, silky and light weight, and the finish looks incredibly natural and non powdery. Lasting power seems to be excellent on my oily skin too! I really can't wait to try some of the other lovely shades from the range.

Do you have any favourite products from Chantecaille?

Look Fantastic Sale!

I spotted this yesterday and thought I'd post it. Almost everything seems to be reduced, including the entire Becca range and Butter London polishes which both have between 20% and 25% off. Some of the Elemis, Gatineau and Murad sets have up to 50% off!

 

www.lookfantastic.com

 

Becca Lost Weekend Collection

I've barely finished picking out what else to get from the Halcyon Days collection but I'm already excited about Becca's Fall collection which consists of gorgeous earthy shades of tan, caramel and chocolate for eyes, subtle, dusty pink and peach for cheeks, and subdued nude on the lips.

 Here's what's included in the collection:

Lost Weekend Palette

Escape from the ordinary with the Lost Weekend Palette. This limited edition 3-hole eye colour palette washes eyes in earthy tones of nude, fawn and tan, in a combination of velvet matte and soft shimmer formulas. 

The lost weekend palette contains:

• Eye Colour Powder - Chino
• Eye Colour Powder - Moleskin
• Eye Colour Powder - Moire

Nail Colour

  

There are three new nail colours:

• Saddle Up - Caramel Nude
• Toasted Marshmallow - Soft Brown Pink
• Billy Tea - Dark Mushroom Taupe

Mineral Blush

BECCA Mineral Blush is a luxury powder for cheeks, imparting natural, luminous colour that is ultra-kind to skin.This longwearing mineral contains a hint of highlight to lift the complexion, with a delicate formula that never appears cakey or chalky.

There are two new shades:

• Tawny Rose -  Rosy plum Nude

• Tawny Peach - Peachy Nude

  Mineral Bronzing/highlighting duo

Dress skin with a bronzy, candle lit glow with BECCA’s Mineral Bronzer/ Illuminator, in Serrana (matte light bronze on one side; soft flesh-toned shimmer on the other side). This lightweight bronzing and illuminating duo adds luminous polish and radiance to the complexion, minimizes flaws by deflecting unflattering light and sculpts and defines features with sunkissed warmth.

Eye Tint

• Baroque - Mushroom Beige

The bronzing/highlight duo and eye tint aren't new products so they're available now, the rest of the collection will be available later on this year. I have my eye on the Lost Weekend Palette, peach blush and all of the gorgeous nail colours. 

Will you be getting anything from the collection?

 

Review: Diorshow Black Out Mascara

I've mentioned in previous reviews that I'm not really a huge fan of mascara. I've tried lots of different formulas from lots of different brands, but I always seem to find something wrong with them. My lashes are quite dark but they're not particularly long or full so I tend to look for products which promise to thicken and add length but still look quite natural. I've tried quite a few of Dior's mascaras and I've really liked a couple of them (Iconic and Diorshow) so I decided to give Black out a go too.

What Dior say about Blackout

Dior reinvents mascara by incorporating pro techniques into one ingenious product. Courtesy of Black Fix Complex - a unique blend of deeply saturated pigments - this creamy formula is the first to reproduce the intensity of kohl. Thickening powder adds staying power, while an Arabic gum extract provides a perfect charcoal-like finish and adds to its incredible resistance. Spectacularly intense!

Diorshow Black Out

My thoughts

Well my first gripe with the mascara is the brush which feels quite large. In actual fact, it's no bigger than other brushes which I seem to do fine with (Benefit Bad gal) but for some reason, Dior's feels big and bulky and makes application messy. I find it very difficult to apply without smudging and I also find the actual bristles to be too soft which makes it hard to coat and define lashes without making them clumpy. The consistency of the mascara is quite 'wet' too which doesn't really help matters either.

Diorshow Blackout brush

When the formula dries, it feels stiff on my lashes and feels uncomfortable and heavy. My eye's also feel irritated when I'm wearing it, which is something I've not really experienced with other products.The mascara does darken and lengthen well but also looks thick and clumpy as you can see in the after picture (sorry about the poor quality pics).

Before

After

Black out doesn't seem to wear well on me either. Whenever I use it, I always seem to end up with smudges on my brow bone or underneath my eyes which are really difficult to remove. Getting it off at the end of the day is hard work too. Even when I use Clinique's Take the day off and cleanse after, I still have traces of the mascara on my lashes and always wake up with smudges the next day.

Overall I'm really not impressed with Black out at all. It's difficult to apply, smudges and smears and it's a pain to remove. It's a product I don't reach for often and one I definitely wont be repurchasing. I seem to be having better luck with lower priced mascara's at the moment so I think I'll be sticking with them for now.

Have you tried Black out? What are your thoughts on it?

Jemma Kidd Silk Touch Gloss

Red magazine are offering a fantastic freebie with their July issue, a full size Jemma Kidd Silk Touch lip gloss in a choice of three lovely shades; a pretty pink, a summery coral and a red which was created especially for the magazine. I actually picked up a Jemma Kidd gloss as part of a similar deal last year and really loved the shade and formula (I repurchased the Fuchsia colour recently) so I thought I'd grab one of the colours on offer. Can you guess which one I went for?

Red July 2011 issue

Jemma Kidd Coral

Yep, I ended up getting the Coral (I just can't get enough of the colour lately)

It's a gorgeous juicy, orange coral shade which leaves lips with a transparent hint of non sticky colour. The formula has a delicate grapefruit scent and feels really comfortable and light weight. Lasting power's not bad either.

Jemma Kidd Coral

Coral & Fuchsia

I haven't decided if I'll be picking up the pink or red shades yet, the pink does look really pretty! 

Will you be grabbing any of the shades?

(The magazine's out now and costs £3.80. The free gloss is worth £14.00!)

Becca Flowerchild Mineral Blush Swatches

Flowerchild is one of two new blush shades which were released recently as part of the Becca Halcyon Days collection. They're described as luxury mineral cheek powders which are designed to impart a natural, luminous color.

Becca Mineral Blush

Becca Mineral Blush: Flowerchild

Flowerchild is described as a peachy pink with golden highlights on the Becca site.

Heavy swatch on the left & lighter swatch right

The formula is lovely. It's silky smooth, soft and pigmented and applies beautifully. I've found I only need to touch the pan with my brush to pick up an adequate amount of product. 

The powder blends well and leaves cheeks with a delicate hint of pinky coral colour. I'm normally not a fan of shimmery blush but the subtle golden shimmer in Flowerchild is barely visible on cheeks and leaves a kind of glowy finish instead of a being sparkly. The formula is described as long wearing and I have found that it holds up well on my oily skin.

(I attempted a photo to show what it looks like on but my camera didn't seem to pick up the colour well)

Flowerchild is the first powder blush I've tried from Becca and I'm impressed with the formula, lasting power and pretty shade. I imagine I'll be reaching for the pinky coral colour a lot during the summer months. It looks lovely paired with Becca's bronzing powder and also works well when I layer it with Guava Beach tint.


Flowerchild is available from Zuneta where it's priced at £25.00