And the highlight of this post is...

You may, or may not, have heard that theBalm Cosmetics are releasing a new luminzing,highlightering, shimmery shadow goodness in the form of 'Cindy Lou-Manizer a.k.a.The Con-tour Artist'. The swatches are making me hyperventilate! It is very pretty and looks to be a great shade for us pale skin girls.  I am waiting patiently until it arrives on our shores though, shipping off of theBalm website to Aberdeen is $25!  Thats one dollar more than the actual item itself!
I digress, seeing the new release made me take another glorious look at my 'Mary'.  This is one of the best highlighters I have tried and I thought I would do a comparison with a product from another of my favourite brands, Benefit.  

Meet 'Moon Beam' liquid highlighter and 'Mary-Lou Manizer' powder highlighter.

So lets start on ease of use.  'Mary' is nice and easy, just lightly dust across where you require a little glow and you're done.  The 'Moon Beam' is a bit trickier because it is liquid.  A little goes a long way with these liquid highlighters and it's usually best to just put a few dots along where you need it and then blend.  This is the bit I struggle with as I often feel I end up undoing my base to blend this.

So colour wise, initially they would appear in the same colour family, so to speak,  'Mary' is a bit of a lighter, champagne gold whereas the 'Moon Beam' has a bit more warmth to it. However, once you get to blending, that changes more than I had expected!

The 'Moon Beam' ends up with a reddish, apricot tone to it which is totally different to the 'Mary'.  The change is quite drastic, and although it is very pretty, it has the potential to change the make up look that you were intent on having. It's still nice and shimmery but on my pale skin, to suddenly have reddish tones along the top of my cheekbones makes me look a bit oddly flushed.  Not ideal if you were aiming for Kim K. style contours.

A few more pics just because I was thrown by how much the 'Moon Beam' changed!  

It's very pretty and on skin with a bit of a tan, the apricot tones would look gorgeous but for now, 'Mary' suits my paleface and my needs much better.

'Moon Beam' is discontinued now but that's not to say it won't come back, however, I did some digging and found a blog post by What Larry Loves, which compares 'Moon Beam' with a super cheap, easy to get a hold of alternative, if the colour sets you aflutter!

I got my 'Mary' from feelunique when they had a 10% off sale however I have noticed it has went from £15 to £16! Sad times!  Save your pennies up and wait for the sales folks! 

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

What's on my face...

This weekend, my work chums and I went for our Christmas 'do'.  For a change it was a lunchtime thing and I was home and in bed by 10.30pm! Not bad eh?! 

Here is what I wore on my face...

It does look like quite a lot when its all laid out! I'll take you through it layer by layer...

The Base...

*Smashbox Photo finish Oil free Primer * Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in the shade 51 * Max Factor Lasting Performance in shade 100 Fair * Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer in shade Ivory *Benefit Hello Flawless Custom Cover-Up Face Powder in shade Ivory *

The Contour...

*Natural Collection Blushed Cheeks in shade Dusky Pink * Bourjois Delice de Poudre in shade 51 * theBalm Cosmetics Mary-Lou Manizer *

The Colour...

* Mua Undressed palette, I used the top right gold shade and the bottom left (I think) in my crease * Superdrug Kolor Black Eyeliner (reaaallly old!) * Benetint Lip Balm * E.l.f. Eye Brow Taming Gel * Natural Collection Lip Pencil in shade Mulberry * 

There are a few items missing in the above picture because I lost them while I was out...nothing at all to do with the vodka, I'm sure... I was wearing Maybelline 'The Rocket' mascara, as seen here, and Kate Moss for Rimmel Matte Lipstick in shade 111 Kiss of life, seen here. I also lost the brush for my Benefit powder, a comb and my wee tin of Elnett - Good job, yes?!

The Scent...

I also took with me, my 10ml YSL Manifesto spray eau de toilette.  I have decide that these dinky but not too dinky perfumes are one of my favourite things! This was part of a gift set I got last Christmas which contained the 50ml bottle of Manifesto and also this handbag sized version.

Have you got any Christmas Nights out to look forward too?

Do you play up lips or eyes or both?

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

Meet the Infamous Mary-Lou Manizer

Ooooh, I love me some cheeky packaging! Benefit, Soap & Glory and now theBalm cosmetics.

Wanted for being too pretty, meet Mary-Lou Manizer. This is a golden honey hued highlighter that is rather multi-talented. 

Love the packaging! I'm all for the cheeky, retro pin-up style so this is right up my street, so kitsch it hurts!!

The compact itself is a sturdy silver job complete with mirror and weighs in at 8.5 grams of product.  For £15 this is slightly more expensive than Soap & Glory's 'Glow all out' luminizing powder, which retails at £11 for 7.5 grams.  I got this as a pressie fromThe Boy, it was in the feelunique sale and he got 10% off too as a first time customer (he bought my Caudalie Eau Fraiche that I posted about here at the same time). 

The highlighter itself is a golden champagne colour, usually I would go for a more pearlescent type such as Benefit high beam but I find this actually adds a really lovely warmth to my face.  

It can be used as an eye-shadow, an all over shimmer or as a highlighter on cheekbones, brow bones etc.  I particularly like a really light dusting of this down the centre of the nose.  

Look at how pigmented it is! 

It has a buttery soft texture although there is a little fall out.  Personally, I feel the shimmer would be too much all over the face but as a highlighter, this really is lovely. it is also great as a shimmery base for a smokey eye as it really helps brighten up the inner corners of the eye.

I use my Real Techniques blush brush or contouring brush for this along with a very light hand.

I have got my eye on several other theBalm cosmetics offerings, first on my list is the Nude'Tude palette.

Have you tried theBalm cosmetics before?

Do you like gimmicky packaging?

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx