8 Beauty Shows You Need To Watch!

Reality TV Competitions

Glow Up Britain's Next Make Up Star (BBC3 Tuesdays/ iplayer /  Netflix)

Glow up is a British reality show where ten aspiring make up artists compete for a contract assisting the worlds biggest make up artists. For 8 weeks they have to live and compete against each other.  The show is back for a third series, now hosted by Maya Jama with judges Dominic Skinner (global senior artist for MAC Cosmetics) and Val Garland (make up director of L'Oreal Paris and a contributing beauty editor at British Vogue magazine.)  After seeing Val Garlands name beside so many catwalk looks it was nice to put a face to the name. I can see why they chose her because she is very theatrical. The show's assignments involve creating looks for fashion magazines, catwalk shows and backstage theatre make up. Special guests have included Michelle Visage. Season 1 is available on Netflix and Seasons 1-3 are available on  the BBC iplayer. 

Face Off (Amazon Prime. /Amazon prime with Hayu.)

This show follows special effects makeup artists as they compete to win  US$100,000 and a year's supply of makeup from Alcone. It is hosted by actress McKenzie Westmore and judged by film and TV make up artists Glenn Hetrick, Ve Neill and Michael Westmore. It feels like the same set up as Project Runway but Face Off was produced and aired by the Sy fi channel. I loved watching  the contestants working with materials like clay, prosthetics, silicone, latex and moulds. While the first two series were focussed on drama the later seasons concentrated on the artistry side of the competition. 

Season 1 is on Amazon Prime. Seasons 8, 9 & 10 Amazon prime with Hayu. 

Documentaries

Make Up A Glamorous History (BBC 2  Tuesdays 9pm/ iplayer. Youtube Documentaries channel here)

This show takes a historical look at what people applied to their faces in the name of beauty. It is a three part series hosted by renown makeup artist  Lisa Eldridge , who has a fascination for how makeup was used throughout  history and has written the book “ Face Paint” on the subject.  Only this time instead of reading about it you can see what all these handmade cosmetics looked like on the skin. The first show explores the Georgian period, next week will focus on the Victorian period and the last show will focus on the early 20th century (probably the 1920's.) Is it very reminiscent of Lucy Worsely's series on the Georgians and Victorians, although this series has a slightly different perspective because Lisa employs her make up artist background to make and compare authentic formulas. She  uses cochineal (crushed beetles, still used today) applied with Spanish wool to give a natural blush that resembles Benefit Cosmetics Benetint.  The show also looks at the hairstyles of the period as well. At the end she puts all the traditional make up techniques to make up a model and style her hair. It's great if you have a curiosity about makeup, or love learning about history. It's very useful if you are interested in becoming a makeup artist or costume designer. 

Broken (Netflix Episode 1 Makeup Mayhem)
This show looks at the current beauty industry, comparing heavyweight giant L'oreal to indie Youtube Guru Marlene Stell of  Make Up Geek and fast fashion /make up Colorpop. Colorpop explain that they can produce so many items because they manufacture in house in America, which keeps costs down. They then focus on counterfeit beauty and why it is so dangerous. I was really shocked when a girl described buying a fake Kylie Lip Kit that had superglue in it and ended up sealing her lips together! The reporters interview custom officers and the police about counterfeit beauty products. We are shown the infamous Santee Alley which is jam packed with market stalls selling large batches of high end counterfeit make up. The police do try to shut them down but it's an ongoing operation like the game 'Whack a Mole', new ones always pop up. This was the first documentary I watched on the topic and I found it really educational and fascinating.

Beauty Laid Bare (BBC 3 iplayer/ Some clips available on Youtube)
This documentary follows four twenty-somethings with different attitudes towards makeup. They head to America to reveal the ugly truth behind the glamorous, multi-billion dollar beauty industry. First there's Chloe a makeup artist and influencer from Belfast; Casey, who uses makeup to express his identity as a gay man and Resh from Manchester who uses make up to help her self esteem and use as a coping mechanism after an acid attack. Finally there's Queenie, from London who doesn't really care about the beauty industry and is cynical about all marketing claims.

The three episodes cover Beauty Con,  Colorpop and Benefit Cosmetics factory tour, counterfeit products, plastic packaging recycling and the effects on sewage system. They also look at common ingredients such as parabens and talc mines contaminated with asbestos. The most poignant moment was watching the production of candelia wax which uses sulphuric acid in the process. It hits too close to home for Resh when she realises that the ingredient in the creams she uses to treat and camouflage her burns uses the very same acid she was attacked with to produce candelia wax. The workers are not given any protective equipment even though the work is so dangerous. It is a very interesting and eye opening documentary that thoroughly examines the beauty industry-  but beware you may never look at cosmetics in the same way again.

Unmasked Make-Up's Big Secret (BBC 3 iplayer/ The Truth About My Make Up Youtube  )
What makes our lipstick glossy and foundation smooth? Palm oil. It's used in 70% of beauty products but what is this ingredient doing to our planet? This documentary follows Emmy Burbidge, a beauty salon owner and makeup artist taking a trip to Papa New Guinea to investigate the production of palm oil and their consequences such as deforestation, sustainability and unfair trade practices. Supermarket chain Iceland created an animated Christmas TV advert in 2018 that promoted their own labelled products as being free of palm oil. This advert was controversy banned on TV for criticising the use of palm oil, you can see the advert on Youtube here. 

Bargain Beauty A Toxic Gamble ( Facebook) 
This documentary is presented by Natalia Jorquera and it investigates counterfeit beauty products in the UK and uncovers why people buy them, citing the pressure social media has. After sending some counterfeit make up to the lab they reveal high levels of toxic ingredients such as lead, paint stripper and faeces (yes you read that right, poo). They interview dermatologist Dr Anjali Mahto, who describes the symptoms that using fake make up can cause including skin rashes, allergies and even chemical burns Additionally some of the metals that have been found in fake products have the potential to cause long term problems with the nervous system and brain. They also interviewed vlogger Maya Gibson who did a video using counterfeit products, when she turned the camera off just 5 minutes later she got an acne flare, spots and part chemical burn on her lips. They also showed examples of genuine and fake products and asked beauty therapy students to tell them apart and found that many of them gave the wrong answer.

Based on a true story / Historial Drama

Self Made (Netflix)

This show is inspired by Madam C J Walker who in 1910 became America's first female self made millionaire after founding a company making hair care products and cosmetics for black women. It stars Octavia Spencer as Sarah Breedlove (a character based on Walker) and friend turned rival Addie, played by Carmen Ejogo.  

The Scent of Spring- Cherry Blossom Body Moisturisers from Rituals & The Body Shop Review

Spring is my favourite season, it's full of optimism, blue skies, more sun, cheerful daffodils, fields of bluebells and of course cherry blossom showers. Japan is known for the Sakura festival which celebrates the blooming of cherry blossom flowers known as 'Sakura' flowers during springtime. People go to parks and picnic under the cherry blossom trees eating special blossom-themed food and sake. It's an ancient tradition that was popularised during the Heian Period (794 to 1185 AD), when emperors and the court of the Imperial Palace began hosting viewing parties and feasting under the blooming branches of the trees. In Japanese culture cherry blossoms symbolise the fragility and the beauty of life because the flowers have such a short time span (they only bloom for 4-10 days). It's a reminder that life is beautiful but that it is also tragically short. Samurai soldiers paid tribute to Sakura trees as a symbol of their own short lives, they serve as a visual reminder of how precious and how precarious life is. Japanese poets described the Sakura blooms as 'spring snow' marking a new season of rebirth of nature and purity. 

Both Sweet cherry fruit extract and cherry blossom flower extract are skin conditioners, they hydrate and soften the skin. They also contain antioxidants which interact with and neutralize free radicals, thus preventing them from causing damage to the skin. They protect the skin against the effect of pollution and ageing, firming skin as well as brightening and soothing it. 

Rituals have a wide range of products in their Ritual of Sakura collection, ranging from perfume, bath products, candles, incense and even washing detergent, in fact there are around 30 products! The tagline 'celebrate each day as a new beginning' perfectly encompasses the Japanese symbol of rebirth and a nice motto to start the day fresh using these products. While cherry blossoms represent the fragility of life in Japanese culture, rice is a symbol of abundance, happiness, and fertility. 

The Ritual Of Sakura Magic Touch Body Cream contains organic rice milk and cherry blossom. Rice milk extract makes your skin soft, supple, and gives it a healthy glow. The sweet cherry fruit extract provides the scent, while the sunflower seed oil soothes and hydrates the skin. The scent is quite strong, very sweet and floral. The texture is like a whipped cream, it feels a little greasy applying but it dries down to a dry slightly waxy, smooth finish. It 's very moisturising and leaves skin really soft and nourished. 

I have a 70ml tube which retails for £5.50 which is pretty affordable for a brand that's more on the luxury side especially as it's a cream rather than a lotion. The larger size is a tub containing 220mls of product and costs £18.50. Both sizes are packaged in recyclable plastic (they have the recycled logo on the packaging.) Rituals also sell refills that can be popped into the original large tub and are slightly cheaper at £15.50. Like most of The Ritual of Sakura range the packaging looks clean and classic in black and white colours and a subtle use of pink for the Japanese character and product tagline. The newer product releases are packaged with pink caps or transparent light pink and lilac bottles which look much prettier. This is the first product I've tried from the brand and I want to investigate their make up line as well!

Rituals have issued a statement saying their products are cruelty free "We never test any of our products or ingredients on animals, and we don’t ask any third parties to perform animal testing for us. Rituals is included on the list of brands satisfying the non-animal-testing criteria of the Proefdiervrij foundation." However I couldn't find this statement on the Rituals website. Rituals does not have a leaping bunny logo on their products as they are not certified by any major animal rights organisation. They do have some vegan products but not all their products are vegan.

The other product cherry blossom body moisturiser I have is The Body Shop Japanese Cherry Blossom Body lotion which is a light moisturiser fragranced with sweet magnolia, cherry blossom and hinoki wood accords. 

The scent of The Body Shop Japanese Cherry Blossom Body lotion is quite strong, very sweet and floral, I prefer it to the Rituals body cream because the addition of magnolia adds more dimension. The scent lasts for hours but is very faint the next day. It's a lightweight lotion that really does makes your skin feel smooth and softer. Right at the top of the ingredients list are Brazil nut oil and babassu oil which smooth and soften skin as well as being antioxidants. This lotion also contains shea butter which is another antioxidant best known for moisturising dry skin.  The cherry blossom flower extract is at the lower end of the list than the Rituals magic touch body cream suggesting it's included for the scent rather than the skin conditioning properties, however because there are other moisturising ingredients I don't think it matters much. I'm impressed with the quality of moisturising ingredients and that The Body Shop didn't skimp on the amounts.

The packaging has a similar colour scheme to The Ritual's Sakura magic touch body cream but with a floral pattern and the bottle has a easy to use cap that you push one side down and the other side flips up revealing the opening,  The amount of product is 250ml which retails for £10 which I think is reasonably priced. Currently it's on sale for £2- so if you're looking for a new body lotion or love sweet, floral scents then grab it because  it's a bargain! 

EDIT The Body Shop Japanese Cherry Blossom Lotion is now only available as part of the Japanese Cherry Blossom Premium Selection gift set which includes the body lotion (250ml) shower gel (250ml)  and fragrance mist (100ml)  and retails at  £20. 

The Body Shop built their brand to be against animal testing, but when it was sold to L'oreal in 2006, many people boycotted the brand because of it's association to non cruelty free parent company L'oreal. In 2017 The Body Shop was bought by Natura, a Brazilian beauty group that is cruelty free. the Body Shop is certified cruelty free by Cruelty Free International. This is one of the most reliable certifications a brand can get, because they are routinely audited to ensure their cruelty free status. (source) Some of their products are vegan others like their honey mask are not. 

W7 Unicorn Nail Polishes Review with Swatches

W7 Cosmetics have brought back their Unicorn collection from 2018 consisting of five duo- chrome nail polishes. W7 describe these polishes as having 'iridescent and pearlescent beams of colour.' The shades are named after unicorns, the ones I have are Serenity 192 which is a hot pink base with a yellow shift that can look orange like a sunset in some lights, and Gratiana 193 is a dusty rose base with a green shift that reminds me of a pink carnation for some reason! The rest of the collection includes Alanana 194 (lilac base with a cool pink shift)  Breanna 195 (lilac base with an electric blue shift) and Drisana 196 (a grey base with a slight blue shift.) The bottles contain 15ml /0.5 fl Oz of product and retail for £2.95. I wanted to take a close up picture of the bottles so you can see the duo chrome shift. With Gratiana it's hard to see the shift in the bottle and on camera. 

W7 Unicorn Nail Polish in Gratiana

W7  unicorn nail polish in Serenity 

The W7 nail polish brush is long and medium thick making it easier to apply the polish. I also love the embossed W7 logo on the top of the nail polish cap.

Serenity is almost opaque after one coat however two coats enhances the colour and provides even coverage, it's a lovely colour for summer. The nail polish started to wear down three days after applying and then chipped on the fourth day which isn't too bad considering I have been typing and washing up without gloves. 

Gratiana needed three layers to reach opacity, the polish is thinner than Serenity and the shift is  subtle, making it harder to catch the green shift on camera. It also chipped very easily the next day so it's fussier to apply and more high maintenance than Serenity.  

Looking at all the shades in the collection it would have been nice to have more variation in colour maybe a dark red, green or gold polish as the collection is very pink/blue/purple.

If you like the colours and duo chrome polishes you should snap them up as the shades are unique and they are very affordable, especially as W7 do not charge for shipping in the UK. W7 Cosmetics also do not test on animals.  You can buy W7's Unicorn nail polish for £2.95 here.