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

Sponge eyeshadow applicators vs eyeshadow brushes

I know these are supposed to be completely useless, and that one is supposed to throw them away and use proper eyeshadow brushes to apply eyeshadow. But I have to confess: I love sponge tip eyeshadow applicators. Give me these over my Bobbi Brown eyeshadow brush any day. I just get such better control with the sponges, and find blending much easier with them as well. This makes me feel I must be doing something wrong, but if it works for me, then it must be...right. Right?

On what side of this issue do you come down?

Rubis Tweezers

Bobbi Brown calls these slant-tipped wonders "the Ferrari of tweezers," and brands them for her line. They come with a cover for the tips, to keep them ultra-sharp for as long as possible, and make brow maintenance a lot easier. From the website:

Every Rubis tweezer is hand finished. Every Rubis tweezer goes through a 40 step process before leaving the factory, and every Rubis tweezer is examined under a microscope before leaving the factory. Remove every hair, every time.

I got a free pair of these from Chi Chi Leitman, who does private label for Bobbi Brown. Chi Chi found Rubis on a trip to Switzerland, where she went in search of the perfect tweezers. (I used to work in Switzerland, and all I ever got there was a tongue stud. Hey, I was 23, it was a dare...And it only lasted a few weeks.)

Although my pair was free, I'd happily part with $30 for a pair - it's an investment that lasts and saves you time chasing errant brows. If faster and easier beauty isn't worth your money, what is? (Don't you dare say orphans and baby seals. They'd want you to have pretty brows, too.)

Brownout

I have been in a brown study, which is why I haven't posted for a couple of days.  Never understood why sadness was described as blue--I hear "blue" and I think of the water off of Key West, languid, warm, sunny.  Brown, for me is the color of the condition just short of depression (which is colorless and cold, like concrete), where you spend a day or two meaning to do things and not doing them, including taking a shower.  It's a feeling of being slighly dirty, with the aftertaste of coffee in your mouth (I don't drink coffee unless I'm having trouble motivating myself).  In other words, brown.  Think about it--when was the last time you woke up feeling jazzed, powerful and up--and put on a brown outfit?

I've always hated despised that brown Bobbi Brown makeup look--and the dogma that went with it.  She was always such a little Maoist about her "look."  Why, tell me, is brown or "earth tones" the only "natural" color palette for makeup?  It is if you're a corpse, I suppose.  I like my earth contained beneath a layer of bright green sod, thank you, with some posies around the edges.

Why the brown study?  A sad friend triggered a round of sadness "flashbacks" for me.  Time to unearth (again a brown process) the unresolved issues.  I tried not to--went to the garden store and bought several flats of spring flowers to plant. But they're still sitting on the porch, accusingly wilted.  It never pays to fight the brown study.  Now that I've paid homage, maybe I can get those flowers in the ground.

Fun with gun(metal)

As mentioned previously, I am currently in the middle of moving house, aka hell on earth. As also mentioned previously, the only perk so far to all the packing has come in discovering all sorts of products I forgot I'd owned. It's like shopping, but with money I've already spent on items I've long since banished from my mind.

And if Saturday's excavation is anything to go on, I went through a very keen Bobbi Brown period in 2001, but quickly lost track of all my purchases before I got much chance to use them. In addition to the very useful Lip Palette 2001 (containing various lip colours, lip shines, and lip shimmers in: berry, sand pink, brown, shell pink, peony SPF 15, cocoa SPF 15, cassis, salmon, raisin, and crimson), I also had quite a lot left of my Bobbi Brown Foundation Stick in Sand. But my favourite rediscovery was a Bobbi Brown Eye Palette 2001, a collection of five eye shadow colours: bone, slate, sable, gunmetal shimmer wash, and raisin summer wash.

So after a long day of packing, wearing no makeup and with my hair scraped back into a ponytail, I thought I'd treat myself to some playtime with my new (old) products.

Shine on, crazy powderface

The first beauty purchase to which I can remember committing big bucks was Clinique Blended Face Powder, purchased from Elder-Beerman (the most upscale store in my hometown) with a large percentage of the cash I'd received for my 13th birthday. I'd read about the powder in my beloved Sassy's About Face (or maybe it was Zits and Stuff) column and was easily persuaded by Andrea L that this product was the answer to my shiny skin woes. Alas, alas. I liked the shaker, though, and this was decent enough to be my go-to powder for years.

I then convinced myself that Bobbi Brown's yellow-tinted translucent powder would be the answer not only to my shine challenge, but would also even out my skin tone and give me the beautiful skin I'd always known make-up could give me. I had just read Bobbi Brown Beauty after reading a rave review of it in Allure and was definitely worshiping at her altar. (The marketers going after that youth dollar sure had my number.) Needless to say, I was crushed when miracles didn't happen and my sebaceous emissions remained at the abnormally high levels to which I'd grown accustomed.

Foundation, blot, repeat. I would always buy high end powder when I could afford it, and drugstore brands when I was poor. When I was in LA last December, I sprung for Trish McEvoy Even Skin Perfecting Dual Powder ($26). I had done no research; I was just in the mood to spend on beauty, and was perhaps dazzled by Young & the Restless star Jess Walton (uber-diva Jill) getting made over on the stool next to me. (I'm not joking about being dazzled: I started watching Walton on the long since cancelled Capitol when I was 5, every afternoon after morning kindergarten at my babysitter's house, and was shocked to see her being exceedingly lovely to everyone around her in real life.) It was a fine powder, but I can't say I felt I got $26 worth of product - and that was before I dropped the thing on the bathroom floor and it shattered into a zillion tiny pieces.

Most recently, in the interest of not splurging on anything I hadn't researched, I picked up a pressed powder compact from 17, a brand found at British chemist (drugstore) Boots. Although it's a pressed powder and I prefer loose, I really cannot tell a difference between it and the pricier powders I have used.

When it comes to translucent powder, is there any reason to buy anything more expensive than a drugstore brand? After years of research and thousands of dollars spent trying to find the answer to this question, I'm still not sure, and my skin still goes shiny after an hour or so - which probably means no, there is not. Feel free to try to dissuade me of this in the comments or via email.

What passes for risk-taking around here

When I was in LA a few weeks ago, Hill gave me a big (Biba!) bag full of cosmetic goodies to bring back to London. I was, of course, absolutely ecstatic. But I didn't realise that what she was giving me wasn't just a bag full of free products. She was giving me some fun that I might never have had on my own: The bag contained, amongst the Tony & Tina Sun Goddess Set and the Smashbox mascaras, many products I never, ever would have paid for myself. Specifically, quite a few eyeliners and shadows in shades of blue and green.

Over the last week, I've been playing with those colours. One day, I wore the Lola Eyeliner in Peek a Blue ($16) with the Helena Rubenstein eye shadow in Outsmart Olive ($27.50), which sounds like a recipe for instant trash - and not in a good way. But I liked the look, which was much more subtle than I would have imagined. Same goes for Saturday, when I wore the Helena Rubenstein eye shadow in Soar Into Sky ($27.50) with the MAC eye pencil in Light Blue ($13). The bright-but-understated look that resulted pleased me immensely, not least because it's one I'd never have dreamed of trying on my own dime.

In the picture above, I'm wearing Bobbi Brown Lip Color in Salmon ($20), a color that has sat untouched for years in the limited edition Bobbi Brown lip palette that I bought on a flight from London to New York. Bolstered by my fun with new shadow colours, I decided to try something different on my lips, which are usually swathed only in shades of mauve-y brown or berry. The salmon thing doesn't really do much for me, I've decided, but it's not exactly offensive, either. Strangely, the lack of success in the end result did not lessen the fun of the experiment one iota.

What's the last look you took a chance and tried? Did you love it or hate it? And how much did it cost you to find out?