FIVE BEAUTY PRODUCTS I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT

I have always been a bit shit at hair and makeup. I am a tomboy. Cropped hair and natural face are my go-to look. Don’t be fooled by the plain face though. My bedroom shelves groan with products, some well used, most often full. As do my bathroom cabinet, handbags, gym bag and even my clothes (the other day I pulled out some hair clips, a lip stain and an eye pencil from a coat I hadn’t worn in over a year).

I was on reader panels for a few magazines so was regularly sent new products that would promise to volumise my hair, lengthen my lashes, plump up my skin, minimise my pores. You name it, I’ve tried it. And promptly forgotten that I own it. I pour over magazines and beauty blogs looking for the Holy Grail products. Those magical elements that mean that instead of layering six products on my face I only need two. This has made me develop fairly expensive tastes. I knew I’d crossed a line last Christmas when I bought myself a Chanel lippy for £25 and didn’t feel the usual sickening guilt. Although my judgement may have been clouded by mulled wine…

Whilst recently packing light for a trip away I was forced to filter myself down to bare essentials. I was going to the middle of nowhere so popping to Boots if I had forgotten anything was not an option. It made me realise just how many of the items I own are surplus to requirements.

Here are the five products I cannot live without. Believe me, I’ve tried.

Essie Nail Polish in Lacquered Up

My face may look a bit undone and shit but my nails? Never! I have been a nail polish obsessive since the age of 12. I paint them so often I am surprised they haven’t peeled off completely. I own in excess of 40 polishes, if I am ever seen without colour on my nails people ask if I am feeling ok. My nails are always short, tidy and colourful. They change with the seasons, sometimes they’re matte, and sometimes they sparkle with layers of glitter. I like to keep people guessing.

With so many to choose from what makes Essie’s Lacquered Up so special? I have never been able to apply it badly. I have applied it tipsy. I have applied it in the back of a taxi. I have applied it shaking with first date nerves. And it always looks AMAZING. A true crimson that oozes sex and is so shiny it never fails to catch the light. If you are in a desperate hurry it can be applied in one coat. It’s magical. I have started to stockpile the shade. If Essie ever discontinued it I would hold a candlelight vigil.

TRESemmé 24 Hour Body Sky High Plump Powder

 I first tried this on a girl’s trip to Blackpool three years ago. After a long bus journey we were all eager to hit the town and there was no time for everyone to shower. One of the girls pulled this magic powder from her bag and proceeded to give us all fairly massive hair in about 30 seconds flat.  The process is simple: shake the bottle, open, sprinkle some on roots, scrunch to add volume et voila – hair higher than Dolly Parton coming out of a wind tunnel. Some people moan about the matte texture it gives hair. I couldn’t give a flying fuck. It looks awesome, that’s all you need to know.  Also, despite heavy use I still have some left in the bottle I bought in 2011. Best fiver I ever spent.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Lip Balm Stain in Honey

 I had lusted over Clinique’s Chubby Sticks but couldn’t bring myself to part with £17 for a product I probably wouldn’t use every day. I read about the Revlon Chubby Stick dupes on a forum and thought I would give them a go. Less than half the price and purchased during a Boots 3 for 2 promo, what did I have to lose? I picked Honey, the colour most like my own lip shade. Some people are put off by the slightly minty scent but it doesn’t bother me. My thin top lip which sometimes threatens to disappear looked plumped and shiny. The colour payoff is excellent, you can layer for a more dramatic look or just blot after applying for a more natural sheen. They last for hours, though eating, drinking, kissing and they don’t dry your lips out like some other stains. I now own four shades but Honey will always be my favourite.

Soap & Glory The Righteous Butter

I drink litres of water every day, I eat healthy(ish). My skin should glow with vitality! It doesn’t. From the neck down I am an expanse of dry flesh. It’s not pretty. In the winter when I pull up my tights I get leg dandruff. I used to slather myself in Palmers Cocoa Butter every night but there was one major downfall – the smell made me hungry, so much so that I struggled to get to sleep. I wanted to lick my own arm I smelled so good. Five years ago a friend recommended Soap and Glory’s The Righteous Butter and I’ve never looked back. Thick and creamy, with shea butter and aloe vera it’s a real treat for the skin. A little goes a long way; tubs seem to last for months despite daily use and my scaly, stretch marked skin is now smooth and strokeable. The scent is strong and quite girly (a male friend once told me I smelt “pink” whatever that means) but I don’t want to lick my own arm after applying to that’s a bonus…

Bourjois 123 Perfect Colour Correcting cream

 I’ve only started using this in the past few weeks but don’t know how I ever lived without it. I have a lot of patchy redness on my face which used to mean layers of concealer and foundation to disguise it. I saw a friend wearing this and she looked fantastic so I thought I would give it a try. I have always been a devotee of Estee Lauder Double Wear but find it quite heavy going for summer use so wanted something lighter. This oil free, lightweight formula has quite a runny consistency but contains magical colour correcting properties which somehow manage to neutralise redness, dark spots and perk up tired looking skin. I look like me on a good day with minimal effort.

So there you go: five products I can’t be without and can all be purchased for around a tenner or less. Not listed: mascara. I own 21 (!) and could do a whole other post on trying to find The One.

 

Five beauty products I cannot live without

I spend hours watching make-up tutorials on YouTube. It started when I began following Lisa Eldridge on Twitter a few years ago and she linked to a contouring video she’d made. Her voice and easy to follow instruction hooked me in and from then on I was engrossed, watching every video on a loop until I knew her tricks and tips. But no matter how many looks I learn, I never stray from my standard face – matte skin, bright lips, slick of black eyeliner, coupled with the same hairstyle. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right?

Regardless of this commitment to the same daily face, I have drawers of products that I buy thinking I could maybe one day, just possibly, branch out. I buy eyeshadow quads of ice-cream spring colours, get home and click open the palette to almost recoil at the thought of slicking anything but the blackest black across my lids. It goes in the drawer, forgotten about along with the various coloured pencils, nude lipsticks and cream blushes that I thought I might just try.

After a recent clear out of three bags of unused goodies, I am determined to curb this habit. My beauty collection has been stripped back to basics, making it fairly easy to pick out the five I simply couldn’t live without. Most products I use are interchangeable (I don’t think I’ve ever bought the same mascara twice) but these five will live and die with me.

Origins Super Spot Remover Blemish Treatment Gel
I spent my teens and early twenties a spotty mess. While hormones played a key part in this, I’m pretty sure a shit (read ‘nonexistent’) skincare routine was to blame for a lot of it. Like most girls that age, I cleansed my face with a wipe and that was it. Grim now I think about it, but at the time it seemed enough.

Now I have a full routine that keeps my skin in fairly good nick, but I still have the odd breakout. This product was recommended to me by a colleague and I cannot believe I never found it sooner. Dab a tiny bit on the spot in the evening and by the morning the spot is visibly reduced, if not gone. It’s no good for large areas, but if you’re getting one or two big spots then this is nothing short of a miracle.

The ingredients that do this are salicylic acid, caffeine and red algae. I couldn’t give two hoots about the science though. As far as I’m concerned it’s made by angels who come down in the night and rub my skin better.

Rimmel Scandaleyes Waterproof Gel Liner
This little pot of excellence survived sweaty, drunken dancing in the rain at Glastonbury – and if it can do that, it can certainly sustain a day in the office. It comes with a brush built into the lid, making it handy to transport and touch up on the go if you need to (which you won’t ever because it’s bloody awesome).

Mini Batiste
Anyone with a full fringe will share my love for mini dry shampoo bottles. Block fringes have a tendency to part, making me look like Ben from A1. That wasn’t a look I wanted in 1998, and it certainly isn’t what I’m going for now. A quick spritz of Batiste, a shake and a shimmy and it’s back to its rightful place.

Red lipstick
Red lipstick can transform a whole outfit. It pulls everything together, making you look instantly ‘done’. I know I can sling on jeans and a t-shirt, and with the addition of blood-red lips and leopard print pumps I look kick-ass. I feel incomplete without it. If I don’t wear it, I don’t feel quite like me.

I know it’s cheating to be so generic, but it is almost impossible for me to pick a specific one; I have upwards of 20 red lipsticks in various shades, textures and formulas. My other half doesn’t really understand my need to buy more. “But this is more pink / velvet / orange / hydrating than the one I’m wearing” is often repeated when we go shopping. I guess blokes just don’t get the subtle differences a slightly bluer tint can make.  My current reds du jour are & Other Stories matte lipstick in Raschel Rouge and Max Factor Colour Elixir in Ruby Tuesday.

Kerastase Ciment Thermique
I wash and blowdry my hair everyday so heat styling can quickly take its toll. (Before you comment, no I’m not stripping out oils by washing it every day, yes I do know I could use dry shampoo – I just like clean swishy hair ok?) I originally read about this product on a beauty forum and so picked some up with my Boots points. I opened the box to discover the instructions had graphs. GRAPHS. In short, it explained that you only need to use the product every 4-5 washes, so a £18 hair product soon becomes a fairly affordable purchase. You smooth it onto wet hair and then style as normal. I don’t know the science bit, just that it’s heat activated and leaves my hair soft, strong and free from heat damage. My hair is both thin and fine (yeah, your jealous right?) and this doesn’t weigh it down or leave it greasy in any way. I cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone who blow dries each day.

 

So there you have it. My Fabulous Five. I do have a bonus gadget – the Babyliss Big Hair – but I’ll save that for another post.

Five beauty essentials to pack if you’re backpacking

Although I once backpacked around India with little more than a bar of solid shampoo, a bit of sun lotion, and a spare pair of pants, I now like to look slightly more polished when I travel, not least because I’m often working when I arrive at my destination, rather than curling up with a lassi and a good book. This means I now usually travel with a toiletry bag bursting at the seams.

However, I’m also a card-carrying beauty junkie, which means I can’t resist sampling new products wherever I go. At the moment

Autumn Nails

I’ve always loved the idea of nail polish but until recently it seemed the preserve of the very suave and organised woman, along with paying for blowdrys, expensive coordinated handbags and not sweating at the gym. I had bitten nails and pudgy hands and on the rare occaision I did put on polish, it generally started all over my fingers and would stay on my nails for months until it eventually all chipped off.

About two years ago, I finally stopped biting my nails and since then I have been attempting to make a bit more of an effort. There are a couple of things I’ve learnt along the way:

Beauty: My 5 holy grail products

Over the last few years I’ve been fortunate enough to try out 100’s of different products because of the nature of my job.  Goody bags and samples mean that I’ve tried loads of stuff although not all of it worth mentioning. No matter how many products I try I always go back to the same few items.  If sent to a desert island I could live without most of them, but where’s the fun in that? But… if the beauty police were to come over all draconian on me then these would be my top 5:

A day in the wardrobe

By Jasmine

Day Look
I suppose my day look can be described as builder meets Simulacra punk meets feministy righteousness. Purchasing my buttercup yellow boots from the Shoe Embassy in London’s Camden earlier in the week, I decided that although boots are not commonly associated with sunny weather, anything is made possible with a bit of yellow on your feet. In an attempt to do these new wardrobe recruits justice, I have teamed up my Cheap Monday stonewash jeans with my No More Page 3 T-shirt. The top now has a bit of a distressed look thanks to a mean battle with my washing machine in back when I lived in Madrid, but I think that reasserts with feeling that the idea of breasts featuring in a national newspaper is as archaic as institutional sexism comes.

Why It’s Okay to Care About Beauty

By day I am a PhD candidate, researching, reading and writing on Cambodian culture. I love it. I consider myself extremely fortunate to do a job which I am infectiously passionate about, which fuels my curiosity and which never leaves me bored.

But this is not the sum total of who I am. Whilst I am conversant in Barthes, Hegel, Buddhist philosophy and Cambodian history, I also have a deep love of fashion and makeup. I see no incompatibility with being intellectually involved in art theory and being concerned with aesthetics at a personal level. Knowing which red lipstick suits me best and knowing the ontology of the three-body theory of the Buddha are not mutually exclusive. Nor are knowledge about the best places to shop in Siem Reap and knowledge of the political, social and artistic history of Cambodia. 

In praise of the pedicure

By Emma F

I’m not a fan of feet. Sure, they do the job of helping me stand, walk and show off my not-insubstantial collection of shoes, but generally I think they are a bit ugly. Thanks to years of ill-fitting footwear and now my running habit, my tootsies are looking a bit knackered. Roughly rubbing in moisturiser every so often and haphazardly daubing my toes with polish really isn’t cutting the mustard so, thanks to a lovely gift voucher from my friends, I nipped off to the salon for a pedicure. And boy, had I forgotten how good they are.