fruitybeauty

Artificial skin for cosmetic testing: Creepy, but in the best possible way.

I went to a Lancome launch today (keep one very alerty and eagley eye out for their Definitely Excellent new nail polishes is all I will say) and I learned that L'Oreal have created synthetic human skin in order to eradicate the need to test on animals. It's called Episkin, it's made from donor cells and not only will it allow cosmetic companies to test for things like irritation or sensitivity with great ease, it will save thousands upon thousands of poor little creatures from being subjected to animal testing so that we can look pretty without swelling up, developing extremely unsavoury rashes, or, uh, dying.

Read about it more in depth here.

Or, don't, and just go back to watching Girls of The Playboy Mansion. Oh come now, you can admit you watch it. We all do. And yet we only remember how terrifyingly inane it is, and how less intelligent we are becoming by the second when Kendra says "Now that I have my grill I definitely feel more like gangsta," or when we notice they all wear pink tracksuits, all the time.

One thing that makes makeup artists weep inside...

Is when people only apply their mascara:

A) On the underside of their lashes
B) From halfway up the lash
C) Sweeping directly up so that the lashes are stiff and vertical

Here is why:

A) It becomes twice as thick when you paint the tops of your lashes, and gives a flawless, defined look to your lashes to anyone observing said lashes.
B) It creates an obvious line which is obvious to everyone who looks at you as you blink (if your conversations are shorter than three seconds then you can get away with this one), except for you, because sadly due to not being able to see yourself when your eyes are closed, your mirror just can't help in this situation. (Don't get upset, mirror - when it comes to eyebrows, you're the business.) Especially when it's a thick, volume-boosting mascara and your lashes are thin, or you're a fair-headed fruit.
C) This can look unnatural, as lashes usually have a slight curl, and span out to the outer of the eyelid. Wiggling at the base and then sweeping the wand/comb out gently to the side gives a prettier, wide-eyed, look. Please see visual aid for evidence.

SYTYCD update:

Demi: Now officially my favourite. JD second.
Nat's hair: Much better, but still a bit flat on top.

When bad (hair) things happen to good people.

I love So You Think You Can Dance. A lot. (The Boogaloo two were my favourite last night.Go Demi, you little pocket rocket.)

I also love Natalie Bassingthwaighte, despite having to google how to spell that insane last name. She's adorable. Cute, warm, funny, well-styled in the threads department and always experimenting with different makeup looks! (Incidentally, I thought the makeup on the show was really quite excellent last night. Wonder what they're using...)

One minute she's all red lip and a slash of shimmer on the lids; the next is a smoky ice blue effect with nude lips. And her hair! Such a delicious cut. Love it short. Makes her so fresh, and stylish and chic. Makes me want to be her friend, and sit over a chai latte and talk about how she gets her curls to sit just so.

And then, then there was last night, and the cemented '70s rollergirl effect someone had cruelly  spilled all over her usually lovely haircut.  Apologies if you missed the show, but basically, there was faaaar too much volume underneath, and not enough on top (although had she patted down and loosened up the bulk of her hair, the flatness on top wouldn't have even registered.) But the main issue, as even Boyfriend noticed, was that those lovely masses of perfectly coloured curls Did. Not. Move. It was a turbo Farrah Fawcett, sans movement.

It kind of looked like the stylist should've done her hair at 3 p.m and then said with a smile, 'Don't you worry  your pretty little head about the fact that you kind of look like Jennifer Lopez in that pink dress at the Oscars a few years back, Nat. It'll drop in a few hours and will look really lovely and natural' ... except that her hair was done ten minutes before Natalie went on, and the drop time occurred when she was already tucked up in bed.

I'm absolutely not picking on ol' mate Nat, (how will I ever be invited for tea and tonging techniques if I do that?). But her hairstylist does need a good talking to about 'natural movement' and 'using less hairspray'.

Bored at work? Maybe it's time you fell in love all over again...

With Meowbert.
Who is just shy of one, and yet looks simultaneously two months old and 14 years old because of his ridiculous face and fat belly combo.

Handy Hint: Imagining for a second that this were the set of Full House (I'd be DJ, of course) the 'Awww' card would come up at photo two, and the 'Oh, now would you look at that' card at photo four.

 

Okay, enough looking at handsome young boys, you perv.
Back to work.

It's the week of love, so here are some products I love.

Ah, love. Love, love, love, love, love, love, as Ben Stiller said in The Heartbreak Kid, in the only funny line of the film.

Anyway! Here are just some of the many, many products I currently love. (Or "love" as they say in New Zealand.)

Prevage anti-aging night cream.

Ah yes, that synthetic antioxidant show-off, Idebenone, making us all stay looking younger by fighting off free radicals in the kind of kickass way nature simply can't match. This night cream version of the treatment is possibly even better than the 'serum', original for me, cause it has an even more concentrated dose of the good stuff and contains Vitamin A for better skin repair through the night. In a nutshelly version: My skin feels lovely and soft and plump in the morning, and I especially love that I can wack it on after cleansing at night, and skip using a serum cause it's that potent. After all, wasn't it... someone... important, possibly religious, who said easiness is next to excellenceless? Yes. It totally was.

Radness factor: Stratospheric.

Bobbi Brown Luminous Foundation.

How much do i love makeup that includes skincare ingredients: Probably more than the paparazzi love Britney. This particular baby has collagen boosting hexapeptides and milk thistle extract, which is probably why my skin looks so lovely and luminous all day when I wear it. I especially love it for night. It's a medium coverage, radiant without shimmer - easily buildable if you need to cover blemishes or pigmentation, though. Oh gosh. This is all sounding well familiar. Have I spoken about this baby before? If I have, pardon, pardon. If i haven't, it's uh, real nice and I like it.

Awesomeness rating: As high as this. (My arm is up as high as I can hold it, and I'm standing on the lounge.)

Lancome Virtuose mascara.

I think I may have discussed my love for Other Mascaras once or 56 times before, but I have yet to talked up the splendour and long lashiness and curviness of this mascara. A long time volume lover, I made the switch to curl and length only out of necessity: I'd run out of my other current mascara obsession, Hypnose. But oh, the magic that awaited my little lash curtains. The brush, is curved, you see, but more than that, it actually grips your lashes and coats them as sweeps up and out. Clever, so clever. And the curl! The length! Happily, there's still even some volume. In all, a wild little adventure in coating and curling lashes. No eyelash curler required. Seriously.

Genius factor: Einstein-esque.

xoxo
Beauty Girl

Fruitybeauty. Literally.

This is Ella.

She's a ginormous nude, peachy woman created by Ella Bache. She's seductively perched down at Sydney's Circular Quay, (where she can keep a eye on all the ferries  and make sure buskers have their proper council permits) and is made up of almost 25, 000 peaches. (The Presidents of The United States of America would wet their corduroy pants at the sight of Ella's incredible peachiness.)

The point in all of this, of course, is that Ella Bache's tagline is Stone Fruits Are Better Than Lego When it Comes To Building Giant Structures, (And Taste Better Too Although Some Two-Year Olds May Disagree.)

Hang on. That's not right.

Ah yes. Skin Good Enough To Eat. Yes, that's it.

Whatevs. Ella is unreal.  (And by the looks of it, a C cup and a regular Spin class attendee.) 

She's also a PERFECTLY accurate visual representation of "fruitybeauty", which happens to be the name of a blog I own. (You should visit it one time. It's totally awesome.)

Blush brushes, eye shadows and mascara not welcome.

Before embarking on a Night Out, many a lady will attempt to jam a cosmetic artillery the collective size of a laptop in a bag roughly the size of a cassette tape.

She has done such an elegant, marvellous job of her makeup before she leaves the house, you see, that she feels the only way she can possibly maintain this splendour throughout the evening is by packing all of the cosmetics (and appropriate tools) used in creating said splendour with her when she leaves.

Sadly, she is wrong to do this.