upgradin'

I'm pretty sure this is going to be a bit of a mess, because I basically have a few things I want to talk about which I've tried to group under the umbrella term of "upgrading" beauty products. How it all came about was I smashed (accidentally, not in a rage) my "contour powder" aka eyeshadow which I discussed here. I was sad but then immediately happy because it meant I had the excuse I needed to buy the Kevyn Aucoin Scultping Powder I'd been thinking about for several years like a complete creep.

As you can see - I was right. The two are bloody similar. However, the Kevyn Aucoin (swatched left) is nicer, goes on smoother, is less apt to look like a beard, so if you really love nice things, get that one. But I totally recommend the other one, too (W7 eyeshadow in "burnt sienna" for the fake fans). Is this a dupe? Am I a real blogger?
Anyway, this got me on to thinking of other things I have "upgraded" on recently - in both other cases to something slightly more expensive, but the price difference is nowhere near as alarming as with the contour. Oh, and, unrelated, but Sali Hughes did a great piece for The Pool about why contouring is creepy, so I have some more thoughts on contouring (so deep) which I'll write about at some point.

I may one have said I liked the Rimmel brow gel - I was wrong. The L'oreal one is a billion times better. It's really fibrous and holdy, and I like mad, brushed up eyebrows, so it just serves my purposes more satifactorily. Also, it's more expensive but twice the size so that's good too. And the brush is smaller and less easy to make a mess with. Overall, it is superior in every way. Sorry Rimmel, we're over.

 Beach Blonde is BACK! Who's excited?? (Nobody, apart from me, I'm sure.) This is the BEST SALT SPRAY and it smells like coconut, so I'm saying goodbye to Toni and Guy (lol) and getting married to John Frieda. I will use this forever unless (heaven forbid) they ... discontinue it ... again *wails*. If you have £6 to spend on a salt spray, it's not up to me to tell you what to do, just heavily imply it (cough*beachblonde*cough).