Beauty launch pad | Benefit Sugarbomb

Being fair with pores large enough to been seen at ten paces, I am always on the prowl for products that both brighten and heighten the colour of my complexion and smooth over the pore-tastic finish of my face.  My first tango with such powders happened during an impulsive shopping spree on my first trip to a Douglas chemist. I was entranced by the place -- like a French chemist with all the high-end beauty I could handle in one go.

During that trip (and rash dash for products), I purchased my first YSL lipglosses and a pot of Guerlain meteorites. I had once espied the latter product on the bathroom shelf in the house of two very glamorous north London Lesbians (where I also came across first flush darjeeling, in the kitchen, not the loo). It was far beyond my meager student means at the time, but my curiosity was piqued, to be satisfied several years later on that first trip down the aisles of Douglas.

Returning home from Douglas, I shimmied off the lid, swirled a brush within the latticed pot of luminescent balls and swept it across my cheeks, from nose to temple (pores being most visible, of course, on the cheek right next to the nose). Wait... where did they go!? My pores!? The skin was smoothed and had the most lovely, soft, uniform finish. I was hooked, for a while at least.

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Spreading more love of beauty-nomics: Benefit friends und family discount

The Balm: The new Benefit?

There're a slew of new retro cosmetics on the rise right now. We came across The Balm a few years ago when it first launched in the US and slowly it's blossomed into a minxy makeup line. It's growing presence in the US beauty market means the range has got to hit UK shores soon. It's not an exhaustive line yet, which is a good thing (more of a capsule collection, really, fitting neatly on an end display) and the products have the requisite (yet slightly more off-kilter) witty names (TimeBalm and Stainiac) of brands of this ilk. The Balm is definitely a first cousin of the the cheeky, kitschy Too Faced, Benefit, Jelly Pong Pong and DuWop.

The small size and independence of the brand makes me like it just that bit more. And their obession with pugs (and token lovely Lab) makes it that much more warm and fuzzy all over. Not many other beauty brands are tongue-in-cheek enough to put the mugs of ugly-cute pugs all over their website. Not even the ones that say they are. Most are just saucy and kitsch with a dash of sex but nothing as oddball as a love of wrinkly pups. How cool. Just look at Wheezie's Picks and you'll know what I mean. Plus, they do as they say, dedicating all proceeds from their vegan lip treatment to the flat-faced little cuties in the Pug Rescue. Check it all out. Oh yeah... and the products aren't half bad. Try the BalmShelter (with SPF17).