Have you heard of Barbara Bort cosmetics?  I hadn’t before I met Sophie Spark at Olympia in London.  The owner of Sparkle Cosmetics, Sophie and her team import a fantastic range of makeup from Italy.

I’m always a little dubious about companies that import brands and are basically distributors, but Sophie’s enthusiasm for the brand captured my attention and made me stay and find out more.

Their products are not in the prettiest of packaging, it’s fairly ‘functional’ but then, who needs expensive packaging, isn’t it about the content and what’s inside?

Available through beauty salons and party plan, you can actually buy the products direct from Sparkle Cosmetics.  Personally, I feel selling through beauty salons is a mistake for this brand, their products are fantastic, and sadly, beauty salons and party plan products don’t have the reputation for being great, and it’s a shame to see such a good set of makeup ‘tarnished’ with the same brush.

I just want to quickly add that not ALL beauty salon and party plan brands are of poor quality, but there are enough that are, to give the rest the bad name.  One bad apple….

I like glitter, I like shimmer, I’m probably far too old for both, but I was very excited to get playing with the makeup that I brought away with me.

As I said before, the packaging isn’t the greatest, and I was (wrongly) dubious about the quality, despite my excitement for the sparkle and glitter, but I shouldn’t have been.  The eyeshadow duo lasted incredibly well, from an 8am application through to an 11pm removal, without creasing.  Not a smudge, not a shift, not a crease.  The one I had is perhaps a tad too shiny for someone past about 30, but they have a great collection of matte and light sheen shadows aswell as the pearlised.

What sold it for me though was the glittering eyeshadow.  I use loose glitter frequently in my job, however, by the very nature of it being ‘loose’ well, it just gets everywhere, and anyone who’s worked with glitter will know that once it’s in the wrong place, you’re done for.  You might think you’ve got all the excess off, but that rogue piece that only appears under certain lighting, strategically placed on the end of your nose, completely wipes out the stunning look you previously created.

I remember an ocassion when I’d been shopping with a friend, we both bought a palette of 9 shadows that included a couple of glitter based shadows.  She told me a few days later that she’d put her makeup on that morning in half light (she starts work early!) and had unfortunately had to dismiss someone from their job later that day.  She was rather mortified to visit the ladies later that day to find that there was glitter all over her cheeks.

But back to the Barbara Bort glitter shadow.  This does not move.  It sticks to your brush and then sticks to your eyes.  It doesn’t wander, doesn’t move, doesn’t fall out, just sits there.  And isn’t that what we want?  Well of course, because in our own lives and on a set, who wants to be touching up eyemakeup.

So for me, I will recommend this brand, and will certainly direct others to buy it.  It’s not a well known brand, so you’ll have to trust me in that it’s worth investigating further.

Sam Donald

www.SamDonald.com