A Strange Package

This week I received the strangest thing in the mail. It was from Maybelline and the cute pink bubble bag contained their latest mascara. Not so strange you're thinking. Well, the mascara wasn't actually included, just the brush. That's right, inside was a clean mascara wand with no product. It includes a little bit about the product and a voucher for £1 off, but obviously I have no means of testing it pre-purchase. What a waste of money and promotion, I thought. Then the next thing I did was take photos of the brush to show you and as I'm writing this, perhaps it's not such a strange marketing move, as it's got us talking about it!

I still would have preferred to try a proper sample of the product before making up my mind about whether or not I want to purchase it. I always claim that the brush is half the battle with mascara, but I still wouldn't be convinced to buy it solely upon using this sample brush with any of my regular mascaras. How can I ever know if the 'real thing' will be just as efficient?

It's called The Rocket (Volum' Express) and promises up to 8x more volume. The Jet-Glide brush (oh how thrilled I am that my new toy has a name!) combined with the smooth mascara formula (one can only assume) loads on a volumised look with separated lashes in super speedy time without clumping. Apparently.

The brush is a flexy, rubbery material, with a bright pink cylindrical centre (no idea why that colour, just for coolness I think).

Granted the brush does look super cool and had I bought this mascara off the shelf, I'd have most likely been none the wiser as to what it looked like pre-black liquid. However, I'd like to be able to tell you how effective this product is and whether or not it does what it claims, so you and I have a fair idea of whether or not to part with our hard earned cash for it! It will most likely remain a mystery for me as I'm not feeling particularly enticed into purchasing yet. Do let me know if you've spotted the TV ads or seen it instore and if it's something you would like to or have tried.

Keeping on the theme of makeup and I'm very proud to say I completed an entire year of my self-imposed Lipstick Challenge this week (yes that's all 52 lippies pictured above)! For those not familiar with it, I wanted to use up my humongous lipstick stash and so select a different lipstick each week to wear for the 7 days (you can always find the current one in the sidebar or look back the archives on the link at the top of my blog). I'm not sure if I should be proud or ashamed to admit, I could probably keep this challenge going for several years as the 52 lipsticks I chose for the challenge last year have barely made a dent in my collection! I can't say I've significantly 'used up' any lipsticks, but that wasn't the intention (I mean how much of a product can you really use in 7 days?) I am pleased to say it's forced me to grab other lipsticks that would normally be sitting neglected or forgotten about. I also think I've become much more adventurous with layering (lipstick over lipstick as well as glosses), because it would get boring wearing the same shade, the same way, all week. I also expected the round-up image above to be filled with nudes, but I'm surprised to see quite a mixture there (see Mum, I don't always buy the same lipstick colours!) and I think for that first year, I've also picked a good selection/mix of brands too. Of course I still have my favourites and at times, I panic that I've already picked that colour for the challenge previously (MAC Viva Glam Gaga and YSL Rouge Volupte's I'm looking at you) and therefore can't wear it again.  However with layering, I can still get the essence of that particular colour if I so wish, so it's not quite so scary to know that it's not 'gone' forever.  So...onwards and upwards to another year and yes, 52 new lipsticks that I haven't already used for last years challenge (hard to keep track sometimes, so I have to check my own page!).  I'm really looking forward to it and hope you are too.

Swatches: Pale Foundation

The photo below was taken last month at my mates wedding. What stood out to me (and probably everyone) was just how pale skinned I am. Yes, I am whiter than the wedding dress! Ok so my friend next to me was just back from a holiday in Greece so that didn't help, but even the lightest of skins are darker than me (yep, even my little nephews!). I'm just not keen on sitting in the sun (I burn rather than tan anyway) and I've never understood the idea of a sunbed-I figure I would feel like a sausage on the grill! Sizzle, sizzle! Besides you don't need me to tell you it's not good for you. So the only option for me tanning is the good old fake stuff in a bottle. I used to use it regularly, but to be honest these days I just can't be bothered with the upkeep. I also realised a few years ago that although I was 'tanned' in my world, compared to other people I was still pretty pasty, so it all seemed like a huge waste of time. That's before I start on the streaks, discoloured bed sheets and clothes and odd smell. Now I've fully embraced the pale and I think it's one of these things that if you're going to do it, you have to go all the way. Now I'm not just pale, I'm super, blue, glow in the dark white! There's no hiding from it, but I reckon it looks better than when I'm a few shades darker (but still pale) with fake tan. It may look shocking to other people and you constantly get 'do you not like the sun?, would you not like to sit out and get a wee tan?', but I'm completely used to it now.
The only problem is finding a foundation pale enough for my skin. I used to be the 2nd or third palest shade depending on how tanned I was, but now I always opt for the lightest one and as I said last week, more often than not it is still too dark. I also feel like I'm stuck in a little bit of a rut with my base. I'm currently alternating Dainty Doll (reviewed last week), Yves Saint Laurent Matt Touch and before that I used L'Oreal Infallible (liquid). I can't say any of them were or are absolutely perfect for me. Add to this the fact that I developed acne prone skin in my mid 20's, it really reduces the number of foundations I can use without further aggravating my skin or causing breakouts.

So I decided to swatch just some of the foundations I've tried over the past couple of years to illustrate the massive difference in colour and lightness/darkness and to hopefully aid in other pale-istas (?) that are curious about light foundation shades. Most of them I can't use anymore because they (may or do) contain ingredients that disagree with me, but I hope it's helpful for those of you that don't have problematic skin. The top row is a blob straight out of the bottle and underneath you can see how it blends.
Givenchy Subli'mine Sculpt Light spf20 in 658 Exact Candy-a darkish orange in the bottle which blends to a pale peach.
Dainty Doll (by Jelly Pong Pong) in Ivory-as you can see this is by far the palest of the lot, a pinky ivory in the pot, that blends to a very pale ivory.
Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse in 010 Ivory-a dull darkish orangey brown that blends similar to Givenchy but more brown.
Yves Saint Laurent Matt Touch Foundation Oil Free spf10 #1 Ivory-I actually also own this in shade 2 and you are surprised by the bright peach that comes out of the tube, it does blend though into a yellowish tint.
Dior Teint Diorlift spf10 in 100 Ivory-a dark cream shade which blends yellowish (more so than YSL).
Rimmel Recover in 100 Ivory-probably the darkest out of the tube, beige which blends to a light tan.
L'Oreal Infallible 015 Porcelain-this is paler than the powder version which I also own (in the same shade) a medium peach which blends to a very light peach. I found this was the worst for oxidizing btw, it turned much darker than when it was fresh out of the bottle because it could've been quite a good match otherwise.
Clinique Superfit Oil Free in 16 Bare (VF-N) (which I would assume stands for 'very fair-neutral'?)-this is a yellow beige and blends to a yellow tan.

As you can see the only one that isn't darker than my skintone is the Dainty Doll-looks like I could have to wear this for the rest of my life! Although the inner part of my arm is probably a little paler than my face. I do recall Lancome having a white foundation (around 12 years ago when I worked for them) and I always wondered who would ever be pale enough to need that. I had a bottle of it myself and used to use it to mix with darker foundations, but now I could see that I would have to wear it on it's own. I quite fancy trying out their newest foundation Teint Miracle, it looks lovely....if anyone has any recommendations then let me know, I know Bobbi Brown do really good pale colours (unfortunately I don't have a counter near me though so it's wasted money if I'm guessing from online swatches). Is it really too much to ask for a super pale, non-comedogenic, flawless finish foundation?