Ooh La La! Lovely Lilacs (pinks) From Make Up Store

Sometimes I jump on the idea of a make-up trend and then quickly scuttle away before I've even tried it. You know, you buy something that you think will be a bit different and then in the cold, hard light of day - bottle it.

Colour me (err) lilac - with a touch of tan

So it has been with the colour lilac. Before Christmas (this is how long it's taken me to muster the courage), I spotted a brand I'd never seen before on Carnaby Street called Make Up Store. Inside, it looked a lot like M.A.C and quite a bit like a professional film and theatre make-up shop; rows upon rows of pigment, shimmer and sheen presided over by extremely helpful, colour-confident and immaculately made-up MUA's. I went in and walked out with a caramel blusher, a lilac blusher and a dinky lilac lip gloss pot. I then proceeded to spend £16 on Christian Lacroix notelets in Liberty. What can I say, it had been a nerve-wracking day. I was trying to shop the edge off of it.

Since then lilac has been popping up everywhere. I especially love the lilac lips, cheeks and tan coloured eye-combos showcased recently in a ton of magazine editorials, so decided to finally embrace this most powdery of purple shades. It has to be said that I appear to have used a TOWIE trowel to load on the blusher but I still like the look; fresh and spring-like.

Shade-shifting: in some lights the blush and gloss appear
 less lilac - more pink

Neither of the shades I used on my cheeks (Matt Glory) and lips (Bay) are actually as lilac as they seem in their pans. Instead, they're a cool pink with slightly violet undertones but very lovely nonetheless. The second blusher (Matt Caramel) is a tan hue with a hint of dusky rose/maroon. I've been using it as a cheek contour  - every 10 years I rediscover my cheekbones - and generally as a means of warming up a genetically wan skin tone. It's a useful, versatile shade. 

Considering that there is a lot of powder fall-out from the blushers (the talc high up in the ingredients list is probably responsible for that), I wasn't expecting the quality to be up to much but these are surprisingly good. I chose the matt variety which are so sheer - but buildable as you can see! - that they actually blend very, very evenly. As an aside, a blusher that doesn't apply patchily can only ever be a positive in my book. Being a perfectionist I HATE it when that happens. 

In terms of negatives, the casing is so butter-fingers light that the blushers have ended up skimming the bathroom floor like hockey pucks on more than one occasion. The lids also have an annoying habit of slipping out of their hinges. At £14 for a Blush Colour and £11 for a Lip Gloss Pot it would obviously be highly preferable for these things not to happen, but neither would put me off of buying more from the range because the effects/performance of the make-up itself are - luckily - so good.

Ultimately, I haven't found my perfect lilac shade but I have found a perfect violet/pink blush and a make-up range I will return to. Have you tried Make Up Store? x

Crown Brush Blusher Palette

I've been itching to try this palette ever since I read a review by the British Beauty Blogger. Blusher is a staple item in my make-up bag (err, trolley), as I've the kind of whey-faced complexion that tends to draw concerned comments like, 'are you sickening for something?' On the post-natal ward where my son was treated for jaundice a midwife quipped that I could use twelve hours under the UVB lamp myself. How I laughed.

Still, she was right about the familial link. My grandmother has exactly the same skin tone, historically attracting similar comments. During the war, her parents got so cheesed-off with people querying their daughter's constitution that they spent precious ration coupons on Bourjois Rouge to tint her wan cheeks rosy.

Vintage Year: Bourjois Rouge circa 1930s.

Back to the present day and the palette in question. When I first clapped eyes on this sleek, substantial box I was a little bit in love just lifting the lid because here, if you're a habitual cheek colour user, are ten pans of heaven. It's difficult to make out in the photograph above, but only two of the tones are actually matt (top left and top right), whilst the rest have a lovely soft, sheen. There's a whole world of pink but each, I can assure, differ in their undertones. Most easy-wear are the peachy hues but what I've most enjoyed about using this palette is that it encourages experimentation.


After giving each shade a whirl individually I've taken to layering. A chalky pale lilac/pink over the light bronze looks pleasingly directional without entering into kooky mum territory; although to be fair, I'm all for a bit of eccentricity. There's even a spot-on matt contour shade. Years ago a make-up artist told me that the perfect colour for carving out bone structure is a marron/brown tone - this is it. Granted it looks scary in the pan but in reality is much, much sheerer than you'd imagine. 


I'm finding it hard to dredge up any real cons; the colour pay-off is good, the blusher itself long-wearing. My only minor criticism would be that you do get more powder 'shedding' than you might be used to with a baked blusher but, for £14.72, I'm certainly not complaining. www.crownbrush.co.uk