My favourite go-to lipstick

Do you need confidence in buying certain items of makeup? I do. I could walk into a high street shop (I have yet to combat my fear of beauty counters) and buy every eyeshadow and nail polish in sight but when it comes to lipsticks, I need more help, I need personal recommendations from friends and I need to see it worn real people whom I trust, as opposed to magazines which I rarely identify myself to.





When I saw my best friend Jo, wearing this gorgeous darker than nude lipstick, I just had to find out what it was and give it a try. Little that I know that it was going to become then my favourite lipstick.






Introducing the gorgeous Velvet Teddy from Mac which I simply can't get enough of. Velvet Teddy belongs to the matte family of lipsticks and delivers a gorgeous darker than nude colour which will pretty much go with anything.


For going out at night, or on special occasions, makeup looks for the blog, I like to pair Velvet Teddy with Lip Inflation Extreme, in sheer bare from Sally Hansen, a £1.99 bargain I stumbled upon before my nearest TJ Hughes shop before its recent closure.





If you've never tried an lip plumper product before, boy, you're in for a shock. I knew I had to expect a stinging sensation but I didn't expect to be that intense. First time I wore it, I asked myself why on earth women would want to go through such a discomfort.






To add to the stinging sensation, Lip inflation has the most unusual spicy flavour/scent, reminiscent of Christmas spices. So all in all, the first I wore felt really felt I was wearing tabasco on my lips. As for the plumping effect, I think it's working but I feel the effect lasts as long as you can feel the light 'burn' on your lips. There is no way I could wear Lip Inflation on a day to day basis, too glossy, too intense, too much but at night time I really like to wear it. I've become really fond of the whole stinging spicy experience now and I wish I had picked more of these before the shop closed.


And this my beloved Mac Velvet Teddy and Sheer Bare worn together on the  lips






Where’s the rest of the head gone? Click here if you want to see as part of my ‘Safari Look’.


Off the top of your head, what is your favourite lipstick, which goes with anything?


top photo credit: lipstick (beautyflorist seller on ebay) and teddy bear.

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My favourite reads

I've always considered myself more as blog reader than an actual blogger. Blog reading is a big deal to me, and checking for new content for my 300+ blogs subscriptions have become part of my daily routine. More than 300 blogs is a lot and I follow each one of them for a unique reason.


There's probably no one quite like Jangsara to blow me away with her make up skills, MakeupbyKaty for her eyebrow transformations, You've got Nail for her amazing photographs and reviews of nails polishes and I could go and on and on.

 

But if I had to narrow it down to just 2 beauty blogs which wow me on every aspect, without the shadow of a doubt, I would say that LIPGLOSSIPING and COSMETIC-CANDY are my ultimate favourite beauty blogs. As if blogging every day was not impressive enough, their posts have an unique style of writing: witty, friendly, humourous, and with a little bit of sarcasm. Their humour is not forced , they are just naturally funny people and it makes it more even more captivating to follow their beauty adventures. And to top it all, they have amazing photography skills.



Outside their blogs, they are a joy to follow on twitter and keep me entertained. I will never forget the day when I first posted about nail polish (I was so shy, I only painted my thumbnail then) and when Lipglossiping.com supported me and commented on my blog. I wanted to frame that comment as the encouragement and boost it gave me has been truly uplifting. I am beyond grateful to the time they spend blogging: it makes me happy.


Outside the realm of beauty blogging, I've been following LUVANDHAT has me in hysteric fits of laughter pretty much every time they post. Luv(e) and Hat(e) follows a very simple yet genius concept. It is a hilarious match of opinions on everyday topics between (mostly) Stuart and Robyn. I am not quite sure when they find the time to blog outside their busy jobs but I am so glad they do as they keep entertained from daily humdrum. If you're new to Luv and Hat, oh boy you're in for a treat. You could start by reading their post on the 'Post Office' and 'Google +'.


For its second year running, Cosmopolitan Magazine wants to celebrate the best of British Blogs and are running their Blog Awards. They are inviting blog readers to nominate their favourite blogs. If you had a minute, I would be so grateful if you could help me support my favourite reads and nominate them to the Cosmo Blog Awards 2011. To do so, it's very easy, go to: http://bit.ly/cosmopoliblog and paste their blog address:

Cosmetic-Candy: http://www.cosmetic-candy.com/ (Established Beauty Blog Category)
Lipglossiping: http://www.lipglossiping.com/ (Established Beauty Blog Category)
LuvandHat:  http://luvandhat.tumblr.com/ (Lifestyle Category)



 

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The best eye makeup remover chosen by… You! :) Mini Poll

.I am running out of eye makeup remover (It seems like I'm going through gallons of eye makeup remover so quickly) and I need to buy a new one.  At the moment, I am using a eye makeup remover from Simple, a decent alternative I had to find to replace my ultimate favourite eye makeup remover product, which I can’t find in England, Cils Demasq, a bi-phase product from Gemey/Maybelline.





I was really curious to see what is everyone's favourite eye makeup remover to have ideas of what to buy and also to find out if I've been missing out on real gems. So this is what, you, my lovely twitter followers have answered, 34 of you to be precise:


 




I messed up my imagemap on the previous picture, so if you want to access cosmetic candy’s links, here are they are, this is her review of her beloved Softymo and this is where she buys it.




and last but certainly not least:


 

I would like to say a massive thank you to all of you for your replies. It is really really interesting what everyone is using, from the high street product to the high end ones, with some ‘homemade’ simple ones thrown in too.


  


I have learnt so much and I think I have been really missing out on the wonder of what the ‘Botanics’ seems to be. I didn’t even know that Boots Botanics did an eye makeup remover, as I was judgemental about all the metallic lid of their bottles but @loulou699 reassured me and nothing is stopping me now :)

I also really really want to try a product I’ve never tried before: the Bioderma product raved about by @lipglossiping and @mylipsbutbetter, as I love the concept of water removing makeup and leaving no residues.




Are you surprised by the answers?
Were they predictable to you?
Any product from above which you want to try?
What is your holy grail eye makeup remover?

liloo/@tsunimee on twitter--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like this type of post? Here are some more polls from the past:
- Elf products and high street availability
- Restaurants dates and who should pay the bill
- 3 Essential Makeup items for a night out

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