Tuesday 31 August 2010

Cosmetics & Beauty News August 2010

Purple is coming back!
With such luminaries as Kim Karadashian and Salma Hayek all having been seen recently in purple, you can be sure that the colour is making a comeback. Which is good news for me, since it's my favourite colour! It's also the colour of Givenchy's new version of fragrance Rewind Play FFWD for Her Intense, which comes with a lovely glittery edge. The pink version is a lighter version or the normal version of the intense scent, both containing amyris wood, sandalwood, and tiare flower. The intense version adds pink peppercorns, orange flower, orchid, tonka bean and patchouli, while the normal version uses white peach, bergamot, sweet pea, magnolia and musks instead. Both are available now to help you spread the purple love from £34.50.
The colours also feature in No7's new limited edition autumn tribal range, which is only available until October 5th. Thunder and Peacock, both mono eyeshadows priced at £8 each, use rich blues and purples, while the £13 Limited Edition Eye Palette marries purple with orange, green and blue.
To cap it all, Lush's new TucaTuca fragrance, which starts at £5.50, contains violets and jasmine, so that you really can be purple all over. 

Have your cake and eat it
So it seems that good things really do come in small packages. Cake Beauty's 11-piece sample set sounds positively delicious, containing travel/gift sizes that include everything you could possibly want: shampoo, conditioner, refreshing mist, bath and shower gel, body mousse, body lotion, hand creme, and a hand and cuticle buffer. The set also offers an array of to-die-for flavours, including satin sugar and milk made. Available from a range of hidden independent boutiques around the world as well as around the web (see here for more info), it's a snip at around £30.

Arrivederci le vacanze...
So the holidays may be over with the prospect of returning to work or school looming on the horizon. However, Mama Mio has a solution to save your hardworking legs. Lucky Legs Cooling Serum not only brings relief to exhausted and swollen limbs but also makes your legs shimmer and sparkle with a touch of glitter. At £15.50, it should put a spring in your step, Italian style.

Back to school
If work doesn't appeal, there's always school. The Makeup School, recently set up by Jacqui McElroy in East London, offers courses to even complete beginners, and will give you all necessary theoretical and practical knowledge and advice to make up yourself and others. Check out www.themakeupschool.co.uk for more.

There's an app for that
The passion for mineral and natural cosmetics is now also increasingly combining with the new craze for smartphone apps. In their iPhone app, Pür Minerals offers you a commitment-free way to try out a new look. Add a photo of yourself to the app, click a product, select a shade, and experiment with products. You can then share the photo if you want, or start again, or click directly through to Pür Minerals' retail partners to purchase the products you've selected. Now that sounds convenient.

Under pressure
Plenty of us can feel under pressure at work, but many of us ladies also put our bodies under pressure by wearing high heels day in day out. The elegant-sounding Foot Petals offers products that claim to transform "even the most uncomfortable of shoes into walking-on-cloud experiences". Although the products themselves sound a bit 90s - Killer Kushionz, Heavenly Heelz and Sole Stopperz to name but a few - they look like they are easy to slip into your shoes and conceal as well as protect your feet with. Available from http://tszuji.co.uk for UK buyers.
Miss Oops is also another good brand to help keep you as cool as a cucumber: the new Rescue Sponge helps you to get rid of makeup stains and deodorant stains from your clothing fast for £8 and Mishap Tape covers all manner of sins for just £5.50. Available at Space NK now!


Gucci Guilty
Among the myriad new perfumes coming out this autumn is Gucci Guilty, which stars in its very own film noir style clip created by the author of Sin City. To celebrate the fragrance's release, they are also running a competition whose first prize is tickets to the MTV Awards this September. Good luck!






Super Summer Saver
Don't tell anyone, but Waitrose are giving you the chance to save your hair and your money from now until September 21, with there being 25% of all Tommyguns hair products.
Melvita is also bringing out a new organic hair care range, so there should be no struggle in getting your hair back into shape.

Ecoluxury from the Emerald Isle
Irish brand Max Benjamin reminds us of the importance of eco-friendliness all around the home with his Eco-Lux candles, which, as the weather gets colder, will be a welcome addition in helping us all to cosy up in a fully sustainable way. Made from 100% soy wax, the £18 candles are slow-burning and last longer than paraffin equivalents. The 15 seasonal fragrances, such as Dodici (rosemary, lemon, lavender, and marjoram), are all made from fine holistic oils, and are available from Selfridges London and Manchester as well as at www.maxbenjamin.ie.

There's something in the air
There's something very exciting in the air at The Fragrance Shop from today: any customer who spends over £10, in store or online, will receive a 'golden ticket' scratch card that gives the chance to win big prizes, including exclusive 'money can't buy' city breaks. There are also thousands of runner-up prizes and money-off vouchers up for grabs, but the big guns include Marc Jacobs bags, luxury perfumes, and trips to New York and Milan. You have until the end of September to try and win - see here for more info: www.TheFragranceShop.co.uk/goldenticket

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