I Love Lip Mix

Mac professional do these amazing tubes of super bright pigment paint, which can be mixed to make an oil paint masterpiece worthy shade, most suitable for shows and editorials.

My extreme love of lipstick has seen me hoard a few of these over the years to make my own bespoke colour at home, but as with most pro products, they're more suited to shoots than every day wear. They're a bit drying - in fact, they feel a bit like real paint on your lips, but the effect is definitely worth it.

The new lip mixes on the beauty block though are absolutely wearable, ever so cheap (£4.99 a pop) and just all round amazing. Although I hate to undermine a well established and much loved product, by telling you about the bargainous alternatives, but on this occasion, well, I will.

Sleek makeup have launched Pout Paints. Yes, an almost direct rip off, but I can't help loving them anyway. They're non sticky, highly pigmented, long lasting, (i mix them on my hand and can't bloody get them off), and non drying.

Get the white shade, cloud 9 as your staple, then build the other colours around it to suit your taste. Available at Superdrug.

My colour is Mauve Over and Cloud 9
Katies is Lava and Cloud 9

The Future of Advertising

The beauty guinea pig trials continue in the Look office. Now that I'm back, lovely assistant Sam gets more gets regular requests (for 'requests' read 'demands'), to try out the slightly more unusual desk drops. This morning? Bespoke SCRATCH N SNIFF nail wraps. These are pretty outstanding without the added olfactory bonus. Wearable? hmm, maybe not so much, but for very far reaching and portable brand advertising, and novelty factor, they get a Look adorned thumbs up.

The smell verdict from Sam: 'fruity'.

Rebel Nails, from £5.99

Violent Lips

While the largest portion of our working day is taken up, well, working, there is always time alloted for trying out. Which technically falls under the work remit too.

Imagine our (my) delight when these lip transfers came in from Violent Lips. Not so much assistant Sam who gets her outstanding hard work and dedication rewarded with guinea pig duties.

The idea is this; Cut out lip shape (pretty much impossible), place on lip and wet back like those kid tattoos we all used to love (again, impossible), carefully peel off, and voila! Perfectly (!), crazily decorated lips. And teeth where Sam is concerned. it is wonderfully funny though...

 (Sorry Sam)

Lacquered Lipsticks

Dear Danielle Scutt,

The world needs a hair accessory made of rows of lipsticks. Maybe some dangly earrings, dangling lipsticks. Plus, and most importantly, a brooch with a bunch of grape-esque lipsticks. Available in Topshop you say? Duly noted.

Yours Sincerely,

 i love lipstick xxx

Have Your Cake And Eat It

Just a quick one for Easter Weekend. I won't lie, it wasn't as fun as last year, when I'd abstained from chocolate AND sweets for six whole weeks, then was handsomely rewarded, by myself, with a Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Cake mix (suspiciously similar to the Pizza Express one btw, a DIY tip off which shouldn't be taken lightly since I used to waitress there).

Which brings me neatly round to a serious affliction that us Beauty Editors have to endure on an almost weekly basis. Cupcake Overdose. We are gifted with delicious, sweet, beautiful, did I mention delicious? butter iced cupcakes from Hummingbird Bakery, or Lola's Kitchen with cholesterol boosting frequency. Usually by beauty PR's to launch a lipstick, sometimes just to say 'happy wednesday' or something, but always to rapturous delight from, first my desk, then the rest of the office who get our leftovers.

When news first spread about my other serious affliction, I got lots of sympathy cupcakes, which was lovely in theory, but lovelier in reality for the team, since I couldn't eat them. For me then, they were more like prettily iced torture.

This week I received this on my desk.

Oh lord, more tempting torturous deliciousness I thought. But no - these are vegetable cupcakes from Petit Pois at Selfridges. Yes veg-e-table, as in Petit Pois, as in peas. Sceptically I tried the 'chocolate' one. It tastes exactly like a delicious, beautiful, sweet, iced chocolate cupcake. But since the main ingredient in this chocolate cake is in fact beetroot, I was fall-off-my-chair surprised and excited in equal measure. Add in the fact it's gluten and dairy free, and only half the calories (170) and fat of normal cupcakes, and I'm swooning with relief at the end of my dessert withdrawal.

Also love the orange and lemon (mostly courgette), and vanilla (pumpkin) varieties, and am hoping this might put an end to the usual cupcake OD's, and kick off a new and slightly less dangerous habit, courtesy of those sugar-pushing PR's.

In the name of the resurrection of Christ of course. Or Passover or whatever. Or because aside from actual medicine, laughter is apparently the best for you, but I reckon cupcakes should be vying for that number 1 spot too...

www.petitpoiscakes.com

From A (sos) to B (urberry)

Its no secret I spend a lot of my time on asos.com. I should take out shares. At the very least get a uniform allowance (nice try?), but since I am a workaholic, even when I'm shopping I'm working. Sort of.

The humongous ginormous retail site has a lot of people behind it. I would love to be one of them -  a styling spot - that would be a great job, but even while I'm thinking I'd love it, I'm appreciating the loooong hoooouuuuurs that go into creating every-single-item-as-still x 4 + catwalk shoot.

For the last few months or so, I've had an asos model crush. Obviously I have exceedingly good taste, as the cute, awkward, blonde object of my affection (not in a weird way, please) has gone onto much greater things. Every time I looked at a t-shirt that she gawkily wore - always the same uncomfortable expression, I'd say to Katie; 'Who is this? We should shoot her.'

Alas I never researched it hard enough, and Mario Testino got in there first.

Cara Delevigne for Burberry SS2011, you had me at Heart Ink T-shirt, £18

Do Not Disturb

We just moved from the 5th to the 7th floor at Blue Fin Building. Going up in the world eh? (sorry), Although this news was met with the usual fear of change feelings, in actuality, its really nice and refreshing. And I get to chat to the InStyle beauty desk every time I go to the toilet now, which is always nice...

The not so nice part was the packing. I HATE moving, this was particularly traumatic. 3 1/2 years worth of desk hoarding into two measly crates. And then unpacking it all two floors up. Ugh.

The nice thing was finding the little things I forgot I had. This was my favourite:

I used to be Beauty Editor at CosmoGIRL! Such cute teenage days. I sat on a great desk with fashion team Navaz, Bella and eventually Olivia (beautifully modelling my customised chef hat at the head of the post).  Navaz was gold. If blogging was prolific in those days, she would have featured in mine regularly. Not least for THIS particular hat.

Its not a joke, she wore it very seriously, when we were NOT TO DISTURB. Every time someone new came in they would humorously try to comment on it, to her, as if they hadn't read the request sat on top of her head. A few days in and the hat was fearfully respected and honoured.

She made me one eventually too. I wore it once at LOOK when I did expenses. It sort of had the opposite effect - I'm not good at commanding fearful respect and honour for the hat.

Still, ahh, the memories...