Beauty Professionals Speak!

So just in time for all those Christmas Eve parties I've been able to get the most Christmas-related beauty dilema asked to me by my readers, and put it forth to some of the beauty editors of top magazines including the likes of Marie Claire, Stylist, Company, Elle and More! magazine. To read my full introductory post to this exciting new feature, click here.

So for this post, I put forth a question asked on my Facebook page not long ago by Kate 15, from Shropshire. She briefly asked me on chat, 'I need to know how to apply glitter in a subtle way... I don't want everyone to look at me like I'm a weirdo but I want it to be noticeable enough that I'll get a couple of compliments. Can your editors help me in time for Christmas Eve?' Well, never fear Kate! Sarah Jane Biggs Beauty Editor of More! magazine wanted to take this one, and here is what she came up with...

Short but sweet, Sarah Jane simply said,

'I love BeneFit's Lust Dusters. Gorgeous colours and just a hint of glitter/shimmer x' 

And since I'm such an epic fan of beneFit my self, I took the initiative to head out and purchase one of these bad boys.

Retailing at just £14 on the beneFit website, these little pots of glitter-pigment are perfect for a sprinkling of sparkle if you don't want to be brassily glitter-fied! Similar to BarryM's Dazzle Dust, this is basically a container with a very loose powder inside, who's glitters are so tiny, it appears from afar almost like a luxury shimmer shadow, but up close twinkles in the light. Most of the colours available are pastel shades, which is great as they highlight your eyes and even though they come in a couple of brighter pastels (like the blue shade  'boom boom' and the green shade I got, named 'moon doggie') they are also suggested by beneFit themselves to be used also as a subtle highlighter on cheekbones!

So here is what a Lust Duster looks like in the pot... Mine's the one on the right...

And now, on the face...

As you can see, I've kept things relatively simple for the rest of my face with just a nice reddish lip, a slightly rosy cheek, a slick of black gel liner and a couple of coats of black mascara. I used Urban Decay's Primer Potion for underneath the dust (vital with loose powders as they can slide easily) but for the actual eyelid, the Lust Duster dominates all!

So I'd like to thank Sarah Jane Biggs of More! magazine tons for her contribution this week! Each week I will be putting a question to the beauty editors, and one of them will respond, so keep your questions coming girls! I've already got a post on keeping winter lips soft, and another on keeping hair healthy in the miserable weather conditions on there way, but please ask me some more questions, as I really want this to be an interactive feature where my readers are fellow beauty bloggers can get proper answers from the women in the know.

So what do you think? Have you tried the Lust Dusters yet? Do you know any other subtle glitter products to help Kate out? Would you wear a green pigment as a cheekbone highlight? Let me know...

Love
gabriellasofia

Review: Valentina by Valentino Eau de Parfum

Having recently written about all of the gorgeous perfume adverts on the television at the moment, I've decided to pick my top few adverts and see if the impression I get from watching the adverts matches the actual scent. You can see my perfume ad post named Don't Judge a Book by its Cover... or a Perfume by its Advert! here.

So I thought I'd start off with Valentina by Valentino as I had a tiny sample box of this scent after attending a beauty event in Selfridges a couple of weeks ago. Even the sample is decanted into such a cute bottle with a very ornate metal flower adorning the front of the bottle. Let's have a little background on the product itself first shall we?

Major perfume retailers in the UK 'The Perfume Shop' say:

From this sensual, insolent beauty, this blatant femininity that eludes conventions, two master perfumers, Olivier Cresp and Alberto Morillas, created a fragrance as a tribute to today’s Valentino woman. With attitude, sophistication and unexpected characteristics, the bouquet of Valentina blends an irreverent Italian floral oriental in which each facet reveals a paradox.


This all sounds very fancy-shmancy to me, so I'll just tell you what I think!

As I expected from the advert, this scent is memorable for all the right reasons. I even feel like the scent is made for Valentina in the commercial, as I feel like it would be really good for a young woman looking to find herself... Your perfume represents you in a big way, and I feel like this would be a great fragrance for some soul searching!

Costing around £32.50 for 30ml, this perfume does have a rather distinctly girlish aroma, in that it is a more floral-based, expensive-smelling scent. It is gentle, and subtle, although it definitely has the potential to become someone's new 'Signature Scent' as it is slightly more sophisticated and classy than other 'girlish' perfumes on the market. This is sweet in an appropriate way, not sickly like candy or irritatingly fruity although there are apparent notes of strawberry and orange present. This is where the subtle sweetness comes in and trust me, no-one would complain if you wore it (I have in the past had friends who have fake-gagged at a tacky So? perfume I was using a couple of years ago because it was so strong! Valentina is comparatively inoffensive.) The subtlety adds a sexy, mysterious edge, meaning that a guy may have to lean in a little closer than usual to smell it, so I believe it would be a perfect 'First Date Fragrance'. In my opinion, this is a perfume for a confident young lady, who knows herself and who wants others to know her too. She may not being the popular girl, but she's no wall-flower either, and she doesn't mind turning a head or two.

This is the effect that I think Valentina will have if you buy it for a loved one this Christmas, so make sure you get it for the right person! In all I have to commend Valentino on a beautiful perfume. I think that the best way to wear a perfume like this is in your hair rather than on your neck... if you are with a guy whilst wearing this he WILL want to kiss you, and if he goes for your neck you don't want to scare him off with that toxic perfume-flavor which is super off-putting. I had to learn the hard way when I flicked some of Valentina onto my lip by accident, that this perfume only smells good, it DOES NOT taste good. Nonetheless, I feel like the scent suits me really quite well for a special intimate occasion... I just have to find someone to be intimate with now :)

Have you tried Valentina? Do you know of another scent which sounds similar to this description? I'd love to try a dupe!

Love
gabriellasofia