Saturday 6 October 2012

Dainty Doll Make-up

Hey everyone :)

Recently I entered a draw with Debenhams Beauty Club to win the chance to review some Dainty Doll make-up, and guess what? I WON! I never win things, so I was well chuffed. I was even more pleased to discover that it wasn't just samples they gave me, but full size products. Considering that Dainty Doll make-up is pretty pricey, I thought this was really generous.


From L-R we have: Dainty Doll Lipstick in Baby Love, Dainty Doll Loose Mineral Powder Foundation in Shade 003 - Now That I've Found You and Dainty Doll Wonderbalm (I keep calling it Wunderbar :P)

Gorgeous packaging yes? The designs are so cute and very fitting with the retro feel of this brand. A little brand background: Dainty Doll is a make-up range designed by Nicola Roberts from Girls Aloud. I can't remember which make-up brand she designed this in conjunction with, but the Dainty Doll mission statement is quoted below:

" Dainty Doll is developed especially to enhance the beauty of fairer skin tines. Created using the finest quality, skin-loving formulas to help cover, perfect and care for your skin, The Dainty Doll range makes it much easier for those with paler skin tones to achieve the ideal shade every time."

So if you're not a pale English rose, then the bases from the brand will be pretty redundant. However, don't rule out Dainty Doll completely, they have eyeshadows, lip products and skincare too!

Back to what I received then: I'll review each product in turn, starting with the not-so-great and progressing to the best product, to leave you lovely readers on a high (I'm an eternal optimist me :P)

Dainty Doll Lipstick in Baby Love



I really didn't get on with this lipstick, and you'll see in a minute why I haven't swatched it on my hand. On the plus side, the packaging looks and feels pricey (It is, £12.50 for 27g, weight includes packaging*) and the actual texture of the lipstick is really lovely. It's creamy, and leaves a cream-matte finish. However this just wasn't the shade for me. Here are my normal lips (apologies, they are quite chapped at the moment):


And here are my lips with Baby Love:






In real life, I look ill when I wear this! It's just way too pale for me. The description on Dainty Doll's website describes this shade as a pinky nude, but on me it pulls a very ghostly colour! My other bug-bear with this lippie is the longevity, or lack thereof. I tried this one morning before I went to work. I applied this over my usual lip-balm (Estelle and Thild Raspberry balm at the minute) and underneath a coat of Lipcote to seal it... and within 1 hour it had already cracked and was fading/peeling off my lips! What the hell! Although they have some warmer and brighter colours in the range I won't be trying these. A no from me sadly...


Dainty Doll Loose Mineral Powder Foundation in Shade 003 - Now That I've Found You






Again, this is a well packaged product, and very good for travelling with (which I do a lot with work and travelling home to Glasgow often). There is absolutely no fallout with this, once the lid comes off, there's a clear plastic tube you slide down to allow the brush to fully fan out, and then the product comes out through the brush...

...At least that's the theory. The main issue I've found with this is that very little product comes out at a time, I have to shake it vigorously (heehee) to get any powder to come out. When it does come out, the powder does match my pale skin very well. This is the darkest shade in the range, but it's a good match for my skin, which was recently matched at MAC with NW15 if that helps. However, the coverage isn't heavy enough for me, it doesn't do a lot for refining large pores (I have these in abundance) and it really doesn't hold well on oily skin types; it lasted around 2 hours on my face before I had to blot and reapply. Which if I'd paid the full £19.50 (for 32g, weight includes packaging *)  price tag I would be a bit miffed about. Also it smells weird. Like plastic. No idea why.

Overall, I'm going to tough it out, because although it's a bit cack as a foundation, it's pretty good as a powder over my usual liquid foundations. It also contains SPF 18, great for protecting your pale skin. So it's not all bad Dainty Doll, plus you've redeemed yourself with the last product I reviewed...


Dainty Doll Wonderbalm


The picture doesn't show how big this is, it's huge! This costs £20.50 for 70g (inc. packaging*) and you get 19g of Wonderbalm, plus a very handy compact mirror in the flip-up lid!


(Photo borrowed from Debenhams.com) It's pretty funky for it's big size. Dainty Doll describes this as a balm that can be used on lips, knees, elbows, hands and feet, or any area that is suffering from dry skin. I'm not sure about hands and feet because I think it'd be a bit heavy for me, but on elbows, knees and particularly lips... THIS IS FAB! Feels lovely and silky on, and leaves skin feeling nourished. The Wonderbalm contains beeswax and vitamin E, both known for their moisturising qualities and this has been particularly soothing on my poor, chapped lips at the moment.

The Wonderbalm is my favourite product from Dainty Doll's range because of its versatility and the effect it is having on my skin and lips, making it pretty good value for money in my eyes. Overall, I'm undecided as to whether I would try any more products from their range, I think I wuld need to hear some more reviews from blogs and websites before I decide.

Have you tried any Dainty Doll make-up? Would love to hear your thoughts :)

(These were products sent to me from Debenhams, I didn't pay for these. All views and opinions are my own.)


*For some reason I couldn't find the weights of the actual products, only the weights of the product including the packaging, sorry!

Christina xo




2 comments:

  1. Great post - I really like that lipstick! I don't think that it washes you out at all. I really want to get my hands on some, just for the packaging alone maybe :) xxx

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  2. Lucky you winning! Would love it if you could take a look at my blog -
    http://lucy-abigail.blogspot.co.uk/
    Lucy x

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