TREND MILL | Topshop Make Up revealed

"YESTERDAY I swung by Victoria House in Holborn to check out the new Topshop Make Up range – a collaboration between the Topshop design team and makeup artist Hannah Murray. First impressions?

Wow, great packaging (thanks to Topshop’s Sarah Thorne and her graphic design team). Loving the monochrome polka dots and stripes. Very cute and just the kind of thing I’d be happy to whip out on a Friday night to lend to a pal. First off, I tried the black eyeliner. Soft, smudgy and thick. I put on a small line beneath my lower lash and the rest of the day I had that rock-chick smudgy eye thing going on – this is a look I’m happy to rock at all times not being a prim and proper suit-wearing kinda girl, but maybe not be so great for the office – this is definitely a party time eyeliner. I then opened a bright blue mascara, then brown before I found my beloved black. The wand is pretty standard, however, the consistency is good, not clumpy. Although you’d definitely need a couple of layers to give good lash.

Next I picked up one of the pinky-red blushers with an inviting creamy texture, but managed to mess it up with my black eye-linered finger, so I quickly moved on to the crayons and lipsticks. Nice range of light, bright colours and hugely creamy on the skin. “Juicy” said the girl next to me, who I have to say was looking very fab in one of the pink lip colours. Very cute little pots of lip balm, watermelon and rose, which I’m dying to get my hands on and there was also a tube of foundation which I must admit I didn’t try – sorry, girls.

But this range is really all about the lip and eye colours. And the prices! The Core range is priced £4-£10 and the smaller Spring-Summer Limited Edition Trend range, which is all glam-evening and disco colours, is £5 to £15.

The core range available this May at select Topshop stores and www.topshop.com. The Limited Edition Trend range available late May via the same outlets."

Written for beautywoome.com by Julia Rebaudo. Check out her new blog Planet707.

TRIED & TESTED | Prtty Peaushun

Updated on 04.17.2010 by Jessica Teas (née Gearhart)

ALL THE hubbub in the blogosphere and oh-so-serious beauty pages of the broadsheets right now is about getting out those glow-in-the-dark gams for spring. You know the ones. Yours. Mine. Pasty, ashy, almost beyond hope. They've been shut away from the sun for so long, you're certain they make Gollum look positively tan next to you. Mine are so white that my blonde leg hairs look black (maybe that was TMI)...

Still, tis the season to reveal legs to the world. Rather than just put them out there as is, garnering a collective gasp of horror, I'm taking matters into my own hands/onto my own legs and leaving the house with something presentable from mid-thigh and below this year. Fake tanning might still be a foreign concept to me and my (nearly) 30 years, but, dammit, my white legs will hold their own against the Tango-ed girls of this world if I have something to say about it! In fact, legs that aren't a subtle shade of Jersey Shore look quite nice and it would be a relief to see a few more ladies rocking a natural, rather than scientific, skin tone. However, that's a topic for another post. Back to my long-neglected legs. 

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5 WAYS TO | Dry shampoo

1 | Oscar Blandi has a powder, non-aerosol version that smells of fresh lemons. The powder ingredient is rice starch instead of the traditional talc so it's finer, doesn't cake on the scalp and is better for you. Rub a bit between your fingers, rub your fingers through your roots and you're set.

2 | Psssssst! is a throwback from the 70s. An original and it's back in circulation, being sold in pocket-sized containers at checkout in drugstores in the US. We can't guarantee an ingredient list as crunchy and wholesome as some of the others on the list but if you're in a pinch, it'll do the trick.

3 | Batiste is probably the cheapest of the lot along with the resuscitated Psssssst! brand. Works a treat in an aerosol can and reminds most women of younger days. They've recently created a colour dry shampoo range that would give Bb dry shampoo a run for its money. I loved the brown one although it smelled a bit like the Ojon dry shampoo (which smells way too much like Thierry Mugler's strangler of a scent, Angel).

4 | Klorane Gentle Dry Shampoo is aerosol like Bb and Batiste but feels lighter than both. It leaves your hair softer and a bit less matte than the others. Good if you're not looking for a ton of volume (which dry shampoos handsomely provide).

5 | Lulu Organics has an ingredient list that reads like a shopping list for a baking experiment. It's pretty straight forward and, as the brand implies, organic. You could probably eat it if you wanted to: organic corn starch, white clay, baking soda, organic rice powder, organic horsetail powder, organic essential oils. And it's talc free.

Others we use: Bb dry shampoo can be good if you want to brighten up your hair or hide roots because of the coloured powder. However, don't wear it if you're going to be sweating or you'll have streaks down your forehead.