Lipgloss is my Life

By the time you read this I’ll be jetting off to Germany and then moving on to the south of France. I’ve got two weddings to attend, one being an old college friend’s and the other being my little sister’s in St Tropez. (Another one. Yup. This would be the third and last. She really, reaaallly likes getting married).

Living it up with my cousins on the yacht last year.

I’d have posted a pic of my sis and I but she’s not picking up her damn cell so I can’t get permission. Unlike me, Mands’ doesn’t enjoy media attention. For the same reason, I’m probably not going to have too many piccies I can post when I get back.

Anyway, I’m probably not going to do any writing while I’m gone so if I were you I’d pop in around the 2nd when I get back.

Love, love

Leigh

FHM magazine recently put out their 100 Sexiest Women issue. The list included foreign hotties like Gisele and Rosie Huntington-Whitely as well as local girls like Tracy McGregor (no. 54) and Lee-Anne Liebenberg (no. 2). Taking the number one spot, however, was former Miss SA Melinda Bam who’s just as gorgeous in real life as she is in print.

FHM Ed Brendan Cooper (a total darling just so you know) and the mag’s mooiest meisie, Ms Melinda Bam

Despite all the hotties, the event still left me icy cold (if only literally… I’m not saying it was kak, okay) due to being held in what is essentially an outdoor mall. As a result, most of my shots kind of look like this:

My legs… I can’t feel my legs….

Things did look up, however, after I discovered an open bar which allowed me to slip into a nice, warm ‘n fuzzy ‘champagne coat’. This may or may not have contributed to me charming the socks off model MC Dean Botha by telling him he looked like a creepy (yet dashing) candy carrying paedophile in his long, trendy coat.

Blogger bestie Clouds and Meneer Dean.

Obviously I was snot flying drunk ‘cos now it’s pretty clear dude was actually channelling Inspector Gadget. (Who was probably also a candy carrying paedophile…)

Anyway, I also got to spend more time with Material actress Carishma Basday who I’d met at that Glamour Stiletto run the other day. She made no. 84 on the list beating out the likes of Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift.

Carishma and her date, actor/comedian Sunil ‘Sunny’ Osman.

Girl’s got a wicked sense of humour too and, during our chat, realised she still had a pair of panties shoved in her jacket pocket.

Hoezit!

‘Er, what’s up with that?’, I asked. ‘Oh these? I shoved ‘em in here ages ago as I wanted to throw them on stage at the Bon Jovi concert’. Ding! Ding! Ding! Oh hello there crazy girl. We could totes be BFF’s for life, yo.

But ja. As a distraction from the freeze, guests were treated to a fun burlesque performance and a grungy hipster girl band called The Dolphins.

Mom didn’t give us enough pocket money this month! Scream, wail, scream! Our maid didn’t iron my jeans right! Scream, wail, scream…

Clearly I’m getting old as, to me, all their songs sounded like an indistinguishable mash of noise. Karisa and Bjorn, however, who’ve got way more hipster in them than I do, thought they were ‘like beyond awesome’.

After the show, we snapped up our media bags which is where I found this FHM cap. I then proceeded to drunkenly stagger around the streets of Woodstock taking embarrassing selfies while Clouds climbed onto some random dude’s bike parked out front and proceed to pose it up for Bjorn’s camera. I have a vague memory of him taking her pic and going ‘No, no; that was good! You look so Rihanna right now!’

Oh hey there Rihanna!

I then woke up the next day to discover this embarrassing media wall shot of Bjorn in my inbox. Could someone not have just pulled him away with a hook already?

Could someone not have just pulled him away with a hook or something?

Anyway, if you want to see who cracked the nod for FHM’s 100 Sexiest list pick up the July issue of the mag out on shelves now.

Love, love

Leigh

UPDATE:

Ha ha!

Eyewear importers Luxottica held a l’il media bash the other day. For those who don’t know, they import luxury eyewear brands like Ray-Ban, Prada and Burberry into South Africa. They invited everyone over in intimate little groups to the Plascon design centre in Waterkant street where we got to browse racks and racks of new sunnies and specs after indulging in a yummy four course tasting menu.

That big round table (top left) swirled around like a Lazy Susan so it was kind of like being at the most stylish Chinese restaurant in town.

..

That risotto on the right was out of this world good.

My friend Paul’s the ‘ambassador’ for Villiera and he was there showing off his bubbly. While I like both the Tradition Brut and Brut Rose pictured, I’m still a massive fan of the label’s new Starlight Brut CC. It’s a low alcohol and low kilojoule cap classique that still tastes delish.

Anyway, getting back to the sunnies… the two pairs I liked best were these new aluminium Ray-Ban Clubmasters (R2 290) and the Vogues I spotted on Luxottica peep Jade. She says they’re the same one’s their new poster girl Eva Mendez wears.

For the record, I don’t know what I’m doing with my hand in this shot. Beating my chest from all the awesome? Jade looks tres glam, however.

My lunch buddy, You mag’s fashion editor Chu, was a fan of these beige round frames (I still have to find out where they’re from) and these fabulously top heavy Pradas.

Somehow I think Chu does a better job at pulling off the Pradas…

Paul was a fan of these super cute Persol PO3052V frames:

One the left I’m wearing DG4191P’s from Dolce & Gabanna’s new Sicily collection (R2 290). They totally match my outfit. Not so much my face.

Dolce & Gabbana’s shades are pretty surreal at the moment. While they don’t suit me, you have to appreciate the prettiness that is their DG4180′s, also from the Sicily collection:

Don’t you think the flowers look just like the icing on wedding cake? With these babies on, I’m the prettiest li’l space alien on Earth.

Oooh! And I have to show you this. Many of Luxottica’s boast polarised lenses. To demonstrate this, they had a big seemingly white TV screen up on display. The moment you popped on one of their sunnies, however, you could totally see a super colour picture. Awesome, right?

Awesome, right?

Anyway, after getting my fill of bubbles, I left with a very awesome li’l gift; a pair of new Vogue Eyewear sunnies in VO 3846S.

Pretty, pretty!

Thanks Luxottica for a lovely lunch and a gorgeous pair of specs.

Love, love

Leigh

Please note: I currently don’t have all the pricing for the shades pictured but the moment I get it, I’ll be sure to update the post.

I don’t know about you but when I think of L’Occitane, I think of luxurious Frenchtastical bath and body goodies. Not so much make-up, even though they do have their own make-up line. This is why I’m a little bit surprised by the awesomeness of their new Sublime Beauty Cream BB Cream. From a ‘coverage’ and ‘finish’ point of view, it definitely klaps the competition from other brand’s that are best known for their make-up.

L’Occitane Sublime Beauty Cream BB Cream SPF 30, R430

Aside from evening out your skin tone with light to medium coverage, Sublime Beauty Cream makes use of jojoba seed oil, iris extract and angelica extract which are all fantastic natural hydrators. Still, despite promising to lavish your skin with moisture, it dries to a matte yet radiant-looking finish thanks to an infusion of microfine illuminating particles.

Available in two shades – Light and Medium – I find I’m able to use both shades.

Medium on the left, Light on the right.

I love its soft, floral scent and like that it glides on my skin like a dream. It definitely offers bit more coverage than your usual BB, which more of than not is more like a tinted moisturiser. L’Occitane’s, however, is more like a hydrating foundation. It’s only negative is that it doesn’t offer more ‘beauty benefits’ outside of hydration and sun protection.

Another nice new L’Occitane product?

L’Occitane Essence Sublime skin perfector, R610

Again, it’s got that delish floral scent and promises to hydrate with a mix of iris and angelica extract along with other water-binders like glycerine. What makes it impressive, however, is it’s ability to smooth out your skin and diminish the look of lines and pores almost as well as a silicone-infused primer would but without silicone.

Honestly, I don’t know how they get it to dry to such a velvety-feeling finish that visibly improves skin texture without a silicone-riddled formula but hey, I’m not complaining. Just bare in mind that if you apply a moisturiser on top of this, you lose the ‘perfected’ look, so this is the kind of serum I’d apply on top.

While L’Occitane reckon the new perfector and BB Cream would make a perfect beauty duo, it’s worth mentioning that I found the BB was easier to spread around my face when teamed with other moisturisers.

Anyway, if you’re anywhere near a L’Occitane store, both the BB and serum are definitely worth a look.

Love, love

Leigh

So MAVALA has a hot new mini nail colour collection called Chilli and Spice that was inspired by far-flung tropical destinations.

From left to right we’ve got Samarkand, Jaipur, Bomaka, Bali, Cuzco and Trinidad.

Of all the shades, I’m most taken with these boys:

Cuzco on the left and Bomarka on the right. For the record, I have no idea where either of these places are in the world.

They’ve also added a few more items to their Eye-Lite eye collections and reformulated their super popular Double-Lash serum, a brush on lash treatment that promises longer, thicker, stronger eye lashes and can be used on your eye brows too.

MAVALA Eye-Lite Double Lash lash serum; the new formula is now paraben-free.

Aside from vitamins and amino acids, the formula also makes use of ‘snail secretion filtrate’ but don’t let that put you off. There’s nothing slimy or gross about it; it just feels like a regular lash serum. While I’m not sure of how snail secretions would benefit lashes, I do know its used in many skin care products in Japan as it’s said to help with skin renewal and skin softening.

I haven’t used it long enough to tell if it works or not (MAVALA says you have to give it 30 days) but you can check out the reviews on Makeupalley.com over here. From my side, I can tell you that the mascara-type wand makes it easy to comb through your lashes but difficult to get it near the roots which is where you’d expect to put a lash growth serum. Anything that would affect their growth needs to hit up the roots. It is, however, super easy to comb it through your brows and I now wish to God my beloved RapidLash treatment offered a comb as well as their thin lash line brush as I primarily use it to fill a little gap in my one eye brow.

Other new goodies? MAVALA’s Eye-Lite Waterproof mascara is now available in not one but two new shades of blue; Glacier Blue which is bold and bright and Night Blue which is more on the navy side of things.

The curved wand makes it easy to apply and I was impressed with this mascara’s definition. And yes, once it was on, it sat vas.

I like that this particular blue, Glacier Blue, is very visible on the eye.

Last but not least, I was very impressed with MAVALA’s new eye make-up remover gel.

MAVALA Eye-Lite eye make-up remover gel

It’s a special soothing formula that feels like a balm and takes off sommer anything. I’ve been using it to remove both waterproof mascara and those almost impossible to get off longwearing lip colours. (L’Oreal have created a new one that’s especially fierce which I’ll blog about soon.)

Does anything here sound like something you’d be interested in? You’ll find everything in stores like Dis-Chem, Clicks and selected pharmacies as I type.

Love, love

Leigh