Reviewing | Becca Lowlight/Highlight Perfecting Palette

10/27/2015 06:30:00 am

There comes a point in life where tasks and processes just become part of one’s routine: we forget to savour the process, to appreciate the end result. A rut, if you will. And a rut I did enter when it came to contouring. Once a wonderful, unique idea, contouring just became much of a muchness. It happens. Product just fulfil their job spec, indeed they do it very well, but a little freshness, a touch of the novel, and a process  steps back to being a joy. Enter the Becca Lowlight/Highlight Perfecting Palette.

Now, this will never replace my Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Powder, but it sure as hell sits nicely alongside it, works in tandem, and adds a little extra. Unlike the Sculpting Powder, the Becca sits slightly warmer on the coolness scale – adding a tad more warmth to the face. Still sculpted, still shadowy, just slightly warmer – more bronze, if you will, perfectly complemented by a peach-gold highlighter that just screams WOW.  The two together, built on the skin are just the thing for a night out – deepen the colour further by using the Kevyn Aucoin in the very hollows of the face.

On it’s own, sans highlighter, the lowlight colour is perfect for an everyday realistic shadow on the face. Buttery soft, ridiculously blendable, these powders make me feel as if I’m living the dream! Buffed onto the sides and tip of the nose, the temples, jawline and into eye-sockets, you’ve got an instant mocha monochromatic look to the skin that looks naturally sculpted and refined.

Much love,
Ani x

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Tippex and Highlighter | Nails

10/09/2015 06:30:00 am

A peculiar thing has passed over me lately – the necessity for nails that look as if they’ve been tippexed or highlighted. Clean, bright, white. Offensive, obnoxious, yellow. I blame those Kardashians – specifically I blame that Kylie and her envy-inducing one day white, next day yellow, always-pointed, hawks talons. I just adore them. 

Fascinatingly, they both bring within them a shed-load of compliments, and the beginnings of thought-provoking discussions. Who knew nail polish was so refined?

Much love,

Ani

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The One I didn’t need | Naked Smoky

10/07/2015 01:57:00 pm

This was the stuff that dreams were made of – I was beyond convinced that this would be the answer to all my palette prayers, and that my life would be made better by the mere inclusion of it within my make-up routine.

Alas, this was not to be. Beautiful as it may have been, and there is no doubt that Urban Decay have refined their presentation – tortoiseshell hard case – and the tools they now provide, double-sided beautiful brush, through to the little tri-fold instruction card on how to create certain looks, this just didn’t do it for me. Pigmentation, spot on as usual, colours beautiful, but I almost didn’t find a cohesion to the shades – individually beautiful, definitely, but together, a little more of a mismatch than I would have liked, and I am quite the queen of mismatching. 

But a palette, to me, needs to be fully workable under all conditions, whatever the occasion may throw up – that is the essence of a palette. What I did find, and this may just make it the perfect palette for some, is that many of these are brilliant add-on shades. Need a little highlight, some glitter, or some extra smoke? There’s a colour in there for all of these. I love my Naked original, and will be sticking to that, but for some, this will be the palette of dreams.

Much love,

Ani

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