Jack & Hill: A Beauty Blog - make-up, cosmetics, perfume, and the substance of style

MAC Beauty Powder Blush

Every year someone sends me some kind of summer blush or bronzer to sample, and I inevitably get all excited by the idea of turning myself into Malibu Barbie. Until I catch sight of myself under a fluorescent light in a store mirror, revealing so many pink and orange streaks and blotches that I look like I'm in camo for flamingo-hunting season. Bronzer is one of those things that never works unless you already have a tan--ie, when you don't need it.

So I was a bit downhearted when I got samples of MAC's Beauty Powder Blush in the mail, thinking ah, another summer product to highlight just how much of a hopeless troglodyte I am. In the interest of doing my bloggerly duty, I dusted some of the stuff onto my sallow cheeks. And damn if it didn't look... good. Very subtle, imperceptible beyond giving a generally false impression of my being well-rested with a healthy circulatory system. I don't want blush to make me look like I'm blushing, see, I just want it to make me look like I'm actually alive. And this stuff does just that.

Also lovely is the Tinted Lip Conditioner in Current, which is light and slippery and feels like a 1970s Coppertone summer. If I kiss my boyfriend while wearing Lipglass, he does that thing with his mouth that dogs do when you feed them peanut butter. When I kissed him with this on, he just smiled.

Youngblood Pressed Mineral Blush

I'm flying to New York later today, and am definitely putting this (which I received as a PR freebie) in my baggie. It's a good product, yes, but beyond that it is a very flat product and will not take up much room in my tattered quart-sized bag. (I so resent having to go through this pointless rigmarole that I steadfastly refuse to employ anything but the most raggedy-ass Ziploc baggie. They can force me to play along with their charade, but they can't force me to pretend it is deserving of nice plastic. Yeah, I know, I'm breakin' their hearts.)

I'm not a huge fan of mineral makeup in general, so am curious to test out Youngblood's mineral foundations. Their eyeshadows are pretty decent, too.

Nars Orgasm

  nars orgasm 
  Originally uploaded by milktea.

This cult classic was a big, $25 bust on me. Definitely one I wish I'd have tried before buying (I ordered it online many years ago, consumed with beauty press hype).

Face Time Embellblush

First of all, Face Time Cosmetics has yet another terrible, user-hostile Flash website*. I am going to tear my hair out and eat it if I have to keep writing that about these sites! What's even worse is that it's an e-commerce site where you can actually buy products, but the Flash interface makes it a huge pain in the ass to do so. For instance, I can't even link directly to any of the products - you have to navigate through their ambiguous menu to find them. Either this company doesn't want to make money or they got swindled by their web agency. Either way, HATE. (UPDATE: I have heard from Face Time, only minutes after I posted this, that they are in the process of redoing their website completely. Hallelujah!)

That said, I have ditched my stand-by Stila blush - and my back-up, NARS Orgasm - in favor of Face Time's Embellblush in Palm Beach Pink (full disclosure: I did not pay for it). It is not as dark as pictured in that image (which I had to grab by printing screen into a graphics program and cropping out the rest of the page...sigh), and gives a nice, healthy, subtle glow. It's a keeper.

* I just found out the other day that I live a block away from the branding agency that created the Sparkle Body Sprays site that first prompted my original anti-Flash rant. Now where did I put my Molotov cocktails...

DuWop Blush Therapy

I had not realised, until I tried DuWop Blush Therapy, just how much I did not want a wet blush. I will still use my Pout Flush Blush and my Tarte Cheek Stain (lots of fab colours in that range), both fairly moist blushes, because they look good. But I find myself grabbing the DuWop most days, because it just feels a lot less icky going on my skin.

I'm afraid, though, that it's that time again: Yes, I have to moan about cosmetic company websites. DuWop's is another one which is pointlessly, infuratingly done in Flash. One consequence of this is being frustrated as a customer, but not just because the site is so eager to show you its bells and whistles when you just want to get to the damn information. If you do a Google search for a specific DuWop product, you won't get the DuWop site in the search results. I genuinely want boutique brands to thrive, because they bring us so many great products and innovations, so it's disappointing to see profit-driving online operations being shunned in favour of crappy ones. As I have written here before:

Get with the program, guys. Your pretty Flash sites are doing you no favours. Make it as easy as possible for women like us to spend money on your products, to spread the word about them, and to help build your brand without you having to spend a penny. Now, it's easier than ever. Ignorance is no excuse; it's shameful.

Still, love the blush.

Mark Blushpaint & Mark Winkstick Hook-Ups

Further to my post about Mark On the Edge Liquid Eyeliner, today I tried out the Mark Blushpaint Cheek Color Hook-Up in a shade called Excited. As with my favourite Pout Flush Blush, the pink looked far too intense - almost fluorescent - in the tube, so I was a bit wary of putting it on (especially as I had a day of business meetings to attend, with people who might not find electric pink cheeks so much funky as fugly). Once applied, though, it was very natural and extremely easy to blend.

I'll also give a thumbs-up to the subtly shimmery Mark Winkstick Hook-Up Eyeshadow Stick in a green-tinged gold colour that is very appropriately called Glitzy. These aren't yet for sale (thank you to the very generous Alex Bier at Kaplow for the samples!), but will constitute more than a bargain at a measly $5 when they are.

I don't think I mentioned it in my previous post, but Mark is an Avon brand, which seems to be targeted at a younger, more urban demographic. I'm not a huge believer in such vague demographic targeting, but I am a very big believer indeed in quality products that are fun and functional, but won't put anyone into bankruptcy. From the items I'm trying from Mark, it seems like exactly that kind of brand. You could go on a mad spree from their catalogue or website and really have nothing about which to feel guilty the next day. Definitely one to watch (and buy).

Bella New Year

I'm just back from a Roman holiday - my boyfriend and I spent New Year's Eve at the Pope's Mass at the Vatican, followed by a seafood feast and plenty of Prosecco. We had an amazing time (check out my moblog for more pics), and I could have looked worse on New Year's Day, considering the amount of holiday indulgence I've been allowing myself over the last month or so.

My real reason for posting this photo is because, in it, I am wearing a number of products that make my list of top products for 2005:

1) Pout Flush Blush in Flushed Pink - I'm such a pimp for this that I got at least one colleague to buy it for his girlfriend for Christmas (along with the Pout Illuminator). In Rome, I took to wearing it on my lips, layered with my Hello Kitty lip balm. I wouldn't think that such an electric pink would suit me at all as a lippy, but it does indeed.

2) Helena Rubenstein eye shadow in Outsmart Olive (also mentioned here) - I never would have imagined that green eye shadow would become such a staple part of my beauty routine. I like to wear a very sheer layer of this, concentrated on the lid, with a swipe in the socket of a brown shadow from Lancome (the specific name of which escapes me right now). This gives the eye a glowy look that I don't think the photo here demonstrates. (I also layer some grey kohl liner both underneath and on top of the shadow, for extra staying power.)

3) Dermacol Elixir Make-Up with Algae - I bought this in Slovakia, and it doesn't seem to be available online (so thanks to Adriana for getting me some more when she went to Slovakia last week!). It's such great foundation, giving substantial coverage without being mask-like. It's everything western foundation should be but - in my experience - isn't.

My brows, of course, are by Shavata. Heh.

Pout Flush Blush

Just as the best gifts are those things which we would never buy for ourselves, the best makeup freebies are those things which we would buy for ourselves if only they weren't that bit over our pay-and-play budgets. Case in point: Pout Flush Blush (£20, about $38 US).

I've been cream-blush-curious for several years now, but considering that my skin errs towards the dry but 'dewy' (read: greeeezy), it seemed as if such products would be forever out of the question for me. There have been times when, in a pinch, I've rubbed lippie into my cheeks so as not to look like death warmed over. At those times, I've always felt as if I were rubbing lard into my skin, inviting not only shine but cystic acne. (I'm not saying that any of this makes sense - just that I had a big hang-up about cream blush but still wanted to try it and see how it felt. Kinda like heroin.)

(Just kidding - about the heroin, anyway.)

So then Priya, one of the nicest, most clued-up PRs I have ever encountered (she didn't send me ANY press releases or huge files!), sent me a package of goodies, and in it was this Pout Flush Blush in Flushed Pink. It's a proper hot pink in the tube, and not the sort of colour I would have guessed would look good on me. But, lo and behold, it does look bloody fantastic. Better yet, it hasn't harmed my skin in the slightest, or increased the glare quotient of my fleshy cheeks.

If you're a sucker for pretty packaging - and if you're not, then you have no business reading this blog - then Pout does not disappoint on that front, either. The designs are delicate and gorgeous, the kind of thing you feel quite pleased to see in your makeup bag every morning.

I am now a convert not to cream blush, but to Pout Flush Blush. Since I have been so over Juicy Tubes for months now (too sticky, not work appropriate), I think these may become my new collector item. The fact that I'm happy to pay for a full set should tell you something.

Desert Island Kit

This isn’t the kind of island where you must learn to make your own bra out of coconuts after your 747 crashes on the way to the Mary Kay convention.  This is a desert island of the mind, a perfect, if minimal place—sort of a cross between a Tibetan monastery and the Golden Door Spa.  But to get there, you have to travel light.  Here’s what I’d throw into my kit if I were leaving today:

Eyes:  Estee Lauder two-in-one eyeshadow Storm Duo; Stila brow filler & #10 brush

Lips:  Tony & Tina lip quartz in Garnet

Face:  Thumbellina powder by Valerie of Beverly Hills; Tony & Tina’s herbal powder blush in Self Healing

Body:  Enessa’s Invigorating Body Polish 

Hair:  Bumble & Bumble’s Alojoba shampoo & conditioner

Fragrance:  Christian Lacroix

What’s in your kit?  Click on the “comments” link below this post and let us know…..

Note to Jeanine Lobell

It would really help if Stila would, somewhere on the packaging, give some indication of what colour a blush is. Did my makeup artist - the lovely Devun Hepner at Stila in the Beverly Center in LA - accidently toss some packaging that had colour information on it? I don't know, but he did give me the most perfect shade of blush that I have ever worn, so I'd like to know what to ask for when I need more - and what to recommend when strangers compliment me on my ethereal glow (shut up; it has happened).