Your so vain...... (My Top 10 Beauty Products)

Member Name: jo1l

Product:	My Top 10 Beauty Products
Date:	23/07/02 (1251 review reads)
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....betcha thought this song was about yer dontcha. According to Assethound this song was written for me! Of course I disagree Carly Simon wrote it for Mick Jagger or so the urban myth goes! Ok I'll get to the point, I love lotions, potions,smellies, perfume and all that gunk you pour onto your hair in attempt to tame it. Now before you get the impression I'm vain and spend all my time in the bathroom on a pampering mission I'd like to say I wish!

Now having perursed the small amount if beautification products in my bathroom I'd say that they are pretty minimal, something to do with living with a nearly 5 year old who loves to just put a tiny bit of mummy Jo's lotions - read for that the whole bottle.

Ok so lets think what can I live without - well all of it if I want to scare old ladies and small kids.

Eye liner

Ok if I had to chuck every thing out I'd fight to the last to keep my eye liner. Now you might say but an eye liner is an eye liner not to me it isn't! I need eye liner! Not just any old eye liner it has to be one of those that comes in a plastic tube a bit like a pen. The wooden pencil ones and me don't get on, years of losing the pencil sharpener - not funny at 6am I can tell you! and getting an eye full of splinters lead me to look for an alternative. Trial and serious errors with the liquid liners - that wonderful Cleopatra look made me look like Coco the clown and a felt tip affair from Avon lead me to the plastic pen liners! Life was so much easier! I used eye liner on the inside of my lower lid and a smudge on the top lid to define my lashes. The pen liners last for ages I use mine daily and they tend to last for about 6 months.

My favourite makes: Maybelline in black or brown roughly a fiver, Clinique - in steel grey bought on Ebay for £3.


Foundation

Being pale skinned I find it incredible difficult to find a foundation that doesn't give me that
wonderful just tangoed look. Again trail and error played a good part in me finding my favourite foundation.

I do not have time at 6am to apply a liquid foundation correctly then add a powder on top - far to much hassle!. Not that I can when I'm awake either! My savour was the invention some years ago of the all in one foundation in a compact. It looks like proper foundation when dry but is applied like a powder. Saving precious minutes at 6am. Ok so I'm vain and couldn't go to work with out my slap on but thats another issue.

My favourite foundation has to be Body shops colourings which has a shade that really doesn't look to unnatural on my pale skin. Available in a compact and a refill at £6.99 and £5.99 this really is good value for money and normally last me 3 months plus.

Lipstick

If you'd have asked me 10 years ago which beauty product I couldn't live without the answer would have been my red Lizzy Arden lippy, no question about it! I lived in that lippy. A wonderful shade of rich red that lasted for ages and definetly was kiss proof!Then they discontined it! I still love a nice red lippy but I've become bold I've got different colours now!

At the moment I'm the proud owner of an Urban decay lipstick arsenal. A little case the size of a credit card easy to hide from that prying 5 year old! This contains a range of Urban decay's best selling lippy colours. Pricey but bought on Ebay for about a third of the recommended price in the shops!

Skincare

Now contray to popular belief I do not spend hours in the bath room slapping on a variety of lotions and potions. To some it might seem that way but I don't!

There comes a time in your life when you prehaps have to spend a little bit more time and attention to your skin. Having spent my 20's and most of my 30's with a skin care range that consisted of soap and water the odd face mask and only usi
ng a moiseriuser in winter when the cold dried out my skin. I suddenly came a convert to skin lotions n potions it was when I notice a wrinkle eeeeeeek!

So a mad buying spree in my local Tesco's ensued, we had cleansers, toners, night cream, day cream and any thing else that would banish that wrinkle!

Then I discovered how cheap posh lotions on Ebay where! Elizabeth Arden became a firm favourite again without the hideous shock of the price! Elizabeth Arden does a whole range of skin pampering treats, ok I might be working my way down the whole list but at ebay price you can afford to do it!

Out of all the Elizabeth Arden skincare stuff I've tried then my firm favourite has to be the Visible difference moisturiser. To be honest you really do not need any thing else. Coming in a big jar weighing in at 75ml it lasts for ages. My last jar was bought on Ebay about 3 months ago and I've still got about a quater of it left. Visible difference can be used either morning or night. Don't make the mistake of blathering a great big dollop of it all over your face, it is quite thick and a touch greasy. You really only need the tinest amount - hence the fact it lasts for ages.

Visible difference retails in the shops for about £25 - way too pricey for me but on Ebay can be picked up for about £6.


Hair dye

I first started dying my hair when I was 13 as I got older and older it became a necessity. So much time has been spent in my bathroom turning it into an abbatior at times! I've had some near disasters like the time I tried to put dye over the top of high lights, what I got was a loverly shade of pink which refused to wash out for some weeks. My firm favourite in the home dying kits would be castings

Recently I gave up dying it nope I wasn't going to grow old gracefully I allowed my hair dresser to do the job for me!

If I could only have two things on this list it would be my ey
e liner and a packet of hair dye!

Hair products

Now before I became a Lizzy Arden skin care junkie I was a haircare junkie. Any gunk thats been produced has probably been used on my unruly mop at some times.

If you are my age you'll probably remember when L'oreal introduced the first ever mousse! I was in heaven - finally something that would allow me to backcomb my hair without resorting to good old fashioned gel or sugar and water ( this was the 80's in Hull, new inventions didn't arrive quickly in Hull)Mousse then came in various strengths - the extreme hold made by Inssette I think was a firm favourite no pun intended along with Boots own brand firm favourite enabled me to back comb the mop to perfection.

Having thick and unruly hair I've spent years dedicated to searching for the ideal product to tame it. I've gone throw waxes, mousses, gels, styling cremes till finally I found it along with a decent hair cut my mop is now tamed with Tigi Control Freak. Control freak is like a mousse but you blast it into the roots blo dry as normal and it works! Control Freak unfortunately is on the pricey side retailing at about £8 for a huge can.

Other favourites

Tigi Spray Shine - great for making your hair look healthy and glossy

Nicky Clarke repair shampoo - smells gorgeous and works!


Perfume

I love perfume. ok I'll expand on that statement I love designer perfume. I'm not the kind of person who would get upset if that old stand by of perfume was used as a gift idea.

I first discovered the wonders of posh perfume when I was given a bottle of Estee Lauders Knowing. This was instant sophistication in a bottle. This heavy woody perfume was an instant pick me up.

I go throw fads with perfumes - hence the number of half used bottles on my dressing table. I've gone from heavy perfumes like Calvin Kliens Obsession or Knowing to crispy delica
te perfumes like CK one via a time when I was like Marilyn Monroe and only wore Chanel no5 in bed - we won't go into that!

One perfume disaster has to be Poison. I never actually owned this particular scent but a good friend of mine did! One particular night I was getting ready to go out on a hot date I was preened, back combed to perfection and looked the biz ( ok so I was vain) My good friend decided that what was lacking was a knock em dead perfume. After a few minutes of sniffing the modest collection I had of scents she wrinkled up her nose whipped out her bottle of Poison. She then sprayed it liberally around my neck wrists the suggested I might like to have a blast down my front! For those of us that grow up in the 80's you'll be familar with this perfume it was a subtle as the blitz, to say it lingered was an understatement - you knew a posion user had been in your room 2 weeks after they had left!

So with said perfum tucked into my handbag I went off to meet the aforementioned man. As it was a hot night - weatherwise! we found a nice pub with a beer garden being out doors meant that the smell of the Poison wasn't too over powering. At closing time we then went back to his. Cue dim lights soft music and sneezing! He was allergic to the perfume! After about 10 minutes he had watering eyes, a wheezing chest and couldn't stop sneezing. what could have been a good thing was killed by Poison. The adjective of less is more sums up Poison very well!

My all time favourite perfume has to be Amarige by Givenchy. Along with Chanel Allure.

Bubbles

I love just being able to relax in a nice hot bubbly bath. My idea of heaven is a nice aromatherapy type bubble bath, condtioner on my hair face mask on a bottle of wine and the phone! this doesn't happen very often normally as I settle in for a long soak I get a banging on the door and the cry of Mummy I neeeeeeeeeeed a wee!

Favourite bubble baths a
t the moment include M&S lavendar bubble bath and Sainsburys Orange and Ginger bath oil.

A Razor

having spent years shredding my legs with an old Bic razor, I finally converted to using a proper ladies razor namely Gilettes Venus razor. Finally a razor that did what it was suppose to do ie shave my legs smoothly without the need for urgent first aid afterwards!

So thats my bathroom contents laid bare! the list will no doubt change as I find yet another must have beauty product!

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