LANCOME celebrates her 75th birthday this year. In her 75 years of beauty, Lancome has represented beauty that is found in women of talent and character, who feels lovely in her own skin and has “Je ne sais quoi”. The french essence that is – stylish, tasteful and feminine. This is evident in the spokespersons that Lancome has chosen for their brand – Anne Hathaway, Juliette Binoche, Isabella Rossellini and Julia Roberts to name a few.
Introduction:
Vogue (UK) announced the debut of D&G makeup in their March 2009. Path McGrath is the creator of the line and Scarlet Johannsson is the spokeperson for the makeup item…check out their website – Dolce and Gabbana The Makeup
Nutty’s Thoughts:
Previously I wrote about my thoughts at News – Dolce & Gabbana Makeup. This post will cover a short review the products I played with at the counter.
The Counter…
okay…when i first saw the counter at Selfridges…I was a little disappointed. Its pretty small…perhaps its cos of the mixture of colours – gold panels intermix with gold and black furnishing…it looked small. There’s a black chandelier handing from the main circular table…it look pretty gothic…the products are displayed around the outside of the circular table. ok…imagine a square, in the middle of the square is a small round table with the chandlier…intersect two lines through the circle (like a cross), the cross marks the passageway for walking. When you reach the end of the passageway, there’s the display with all the goodies…
The Sales Staff…
Knows their stuff but a little intimidating…happy to help once you get over the fact that they are intimidating…imagine tall amazons with slick tightly pulled back hair and a bright red lipstick on their lips!
The Products…
Face - powder foundation was super duper fine. The bronzer especially the lightest shade reminded me of the lightest shade of the bronzer that Stephane Marais used to produced.
Eyes - As per the powder foundation texture – very fine. A nice range of shades available in the quads and duos. Pigmentation veered from sheer to fairly pigmented. Very fine shimmer such that it looked like there wasnt any shimmer in the eyeshadows.
Lips - 2 versions of lipsticks – creme and shine formulae. Both seem to apply easily. Best bit would be the wide range of red shades. If you love red, do check out their range. I totally love their different formulae, so if you find a red too strong in the creme formulae, try the shine formuale. Lipsticks are scented.
Packaging – Gold packaging that athough looks classic is actually pretty light weight. Somehow everytime I use the lipstick I bought, i get the feeling its pretty filmsy.
Verdict
Prices similar to higher end brands. There’s nothing that really stood out for me that day when i visited the counter although i did buy a lipstick only because I was curious on how good it would be given the amount of thought and care put into the production of their lipstick – please see News: Dolce & Gabbana. MUA has also given quite good reviews on their powder foundation. For the moment, am quite happy sticking to my Chanel and Chantecaille…although I strongly think its probably because I have way too much stash at the moment. Perhaps anyone near a counter would like to take a look and form your own opinion. Do comment on your thoughts of this new makeup brand.
To view their products online, check out – Dolce & Gabbana The Makeup
To view the video of Scarlett at Selfridges, check out video
Hope this helps!
~nutty
Images from DolceGabbanamakeup.com
NAILS INC is a local UK company that specialises in providing quick and affordable manicures for the lady on the go. If you happen to be at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, pop down to their counter to try out their new champagne manicure. There are also counters at Debenhams, Harvey Nichols, Brown Thomas, Selfridges and John Lewis. Their manicures use their own in-house brand of nail products. These nail products can be purchase at Boots, QVC and ASOS.com as well.
Their website also provides online shopping and runs promotions or special collections that are available only online so its a great idea to sign up for their newsletters. Unfortunately, shipping on that website is only within UK and Ireland. For international ladies who love nails inc, you might want to try – ASOS.com and HqHair.
Boots sells mini sizes of some of their nail care products. That would be a good way to test drive their items. Their nail polishes tend to be mostly creme with a few shimmery ones.
Check out their website for further information – Nails Inc
Stay tune for reviews and more swatches on their nail products.
Hope this helps!
~nutty
Posts that may interest you:
Nails Inc:
Brand Reviews:
Nails:
Ever hear of this brand – B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful? It is the sister brand to Lush. Lush specialises in skincare, haircare and bath products but BNTBBTBB (sorry…its name is way too long!) specialises in makeup!! I was told by their sa that all products are suitable for vegans and mirrors Lush’s idea of using natural ingredients for their products.
I have not personally tried any of their stuff but I did test-drive their fragrances and played with their glitter – loose Face and Body Glitter and Metallic Loose Powder when I was in store…gorgeous!! The loose glitter is slightly chunky but the loose metallic powder are gorgeous!! These come in pretty carved wooden jars and their fragrances all came in vintage bottles and because its vintage, not every bottle is the same. This idea of different packaging remains true for their other products…the same shade of lipgloss or eyeshadow would come in an array of different gorgeous beaded casings! So besides choosing the shade you want, you also get to choose the casing!! The idea is to turn makeup into a hobby…making each product collectible…apparently each beaded casing is hand made in India!
Their products are available at B Never To Busy To Be Beautiful . There are only 3 stores in UK right now, two in London- Convent Garden and Oxford Street – and one in Leeds. I do believe they ship international in case anyone is lemming for these…oh…am sure you can find these in Japan…apparently the Japanese ladies absolutely love their stuff.
I have uploaded photos of their products taken from their websites…they wouldn’t allow any photographs to be taken in store!! Am not too sure if the pictures are accurate colour wise…but I must admit their packaging looks sooo pretty!!
Face Products
Main Picture is their foundation.
Right column, Top to Bottom – Cream blusher, powder blusher and face powder with face brush.
Their face powders, blushes (cream and powder) and face powder all come in refills…so dont forget to choose a gorgeous casing right at the beginning!!
Eyes
Main Picture is their Eye Kohl.
Right column, Top to Bottom – Pressed eyeshadow, Metallic Loose Powder and Loose Glitter Pots (Face and Body Glitter)
More pictures of their pressed eyeshadow…note the different casing designs!!
More pictures of their glitter products…the smaller pictures are the glitter for face and body while the pictures of the close up are the loose metallic powders…if you want glitter, shimmer, sparkles…this are an absolutely must have for you!!! Havent convinced you yet? How about these…
The full range of loose glitter for face and body…not good enough you say?? Would these help??
The entire range of Loose Metallic Powder…
Lip Products
Main image is their Lip Stain – reminds me of what those ladies use in those period/wuxia dramas!!
See those gold things inside the pretty casing?? Apparently its gold foil!!
Has anyone tried their stuff before?? Let me know what you think of them in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed drooling over the pictures!!
~nutty
Images from https://www.bnevertoobusytobebeautiful.com/
Introduction:
Ren Skincare is a UK brand that specialises in using non-irritating skincare friendly ingredients in their products. Products are not tested on animals and they donated proceeds back to campaigns that promote the environment. Their packaging is supposedly environmental friendly and is quite ingenious since it is a vacuum pack pump (thus keeping the products fresh!). Their line up include facial skincare, body, hair and fragrance products.
Rave Products:
Jojoba Micro Bead Purifying Facial Scrub
Ren is currently having a Valentine day’s promotion:
£3 from every order will be donated to KISS for BLISS, Bliss’s national raising fun week and to make sure there’s lots of £3’s they are offering a 20% discount on every online order until 15th February*.Just enter offer code KISS whilst checking out.
Free UK delivery for orders above £50.
Nutty’s thoughts:
Well, I have tried a few of their items and found that their items are quite gentle on my sensitive reactive skin. In particular the Jojoba scrub is a huge huge huge favourite of mine…just be aware that some of the moisturisers might be a little rich for some skin types because they contain Shea butter and certain products aren’t meant for sensitive skintypes. The Rose Otto range of body care is really really luxurious and expensive!
Hope this helps!
~nutty
Images from renskincare.com
Perhaps you might be interested in:
Skincare Review: La Mer The Hydrating Infusion
Skincare Review: Creme de La Mer
Best of 2008
