Revlon Colorstay Normal/Dry Skin Foundation

So here I am, continuing on in the quest to find the perfect foundation, yes I may have a few ones that I really like and work well, but I still want that all time favourite foundation that I just can not go without and I am yet to find it. On my quest to find the holy grail I picked up Revlon Colourstay, although this isn’t the one it is another of those ones that I really like. I got the one for dry to normal skin as I don’t like my skin to be completely matte.

The foundation claims to have ‘Long-wearing coverage with a lightweight formula that won’t cake, fade, or rub off. With Time Release Technology, the oil-free, moisture-balance formula is especially formulated for normal or dry skin to continuously provide hydration.’ Now there’s some of that I do agree with, I don’t find it cakey but it does tend to rub off rather easily which is a pain in the ass. For example say if i rest my hand on my face, when I then remove it I will 3 out of 5 times have taken half of my foundation off with it. I do agree with the foundation providing hydration as my skin never looks dry or dull when wearing it, I would recommend powdering over it though as it can sometimes make you appear shiny. This foundation comes without a pump which can be a real annoyance and you do tend to waste a lot of product. 

I got the shade 180 Sand Beige which is more pink toned than I wanted but I did find that mostly all of the shades stocked in my local boots were leaning towards the pink tone. 

Coverage

I would say the coverage of this foundation is medium with two layers, it does cover some imperfections but not all so this isn’t for you if you have bad acne scars etc. The foundation doesn’t cake at all when adding more layers which is good if you are wanting a little more coverage. 

Longevity 

This foundation claims to last 24hrs which I think is a bit extreme, it in no way lasts that long but it does have good staying power, think Mac Pro Longwear but a little less coverage. I’d say it could easily get you through an 8 hour day with no touch ups needed but after that you may see some minimal fading. 

Have you tried this foundation, what do you think?

My Current Everyday Make-Up Routine|Glowy Skin & Neutral Eyes

 So it’s been a while since I last did a post on my most worn make up look and since then a lot has changed and I have discovered new products. This make up look is what I  wear on most days, either to college, out with the girls or just shopping, I do sometimes skip the liner for college so that it’s less to do in the mornings.

 Face

So I start by using my new No7 Instant Radiance foundation on a Real Techniques Buffing brush and blend this into my skin. I have only been using the foundation for around 2 weeks so I still haven’t made a full decision on how good I think it is yet, but so far I like it. For bronzer I used my Sleek Contour Kit to enhance my cheekbones, and for blush I used the Benefit Benetint which gives a beautiful natural flush to your cheeks.

Eyes

The eyes are the main focus of this make up look, even though they are still neutral they do stand out. All the shades I used are from the Barry M Limited Edition Starry Nights Palette, I place the gold shade all along my lid and the burgandy/red shade into my crease. I find that these sort of colours really make blue eyes pop and I have been loving this eye look lately. On some days I will apply a thin line of the No7 Felt Tip Liner to my lash line to make it appear thicker. I then finish off the look with the No7 Midnight Lash mascara, this stuff is amazing and adds so much length to your lashes, I would highly recommend it. 

Lips

My lipstick changes on a daily basis depending on what I am feeling on the day, but my favouite basic lip look is to take Estee Lauder Stay Mauve lipstick and then apply a dab of Mac’s Creme Cup in the middle. This gives a natural looking Kylie Jenner feel. 

 

Mac Russian Red

So, Christmas has come and gone and yet again I have failed at blogging. I’ve had a serious lack of motivation over the past few months but I am making sure one of my New Years resolutions is to get back in to blogging. Anyway, I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and got everything you wanted.

I received a lot of make which I should be featuring on my blog over the course of the next few months. One of the first make up gifts I received was a Mac lipstick from my best friend. She had asked what shade was on the top of my wishlist (which was Russian Red) and got it for me for Christmas which I was so happy about! This ended up being my Christmas day lip colour, I paired it with a red lip gloss to give it an extra Christmassy feel and thats exactly how I felt wearing it. 

Russian Red is your standard blue toned matte lipstick. It is a classic shade that will never go out of style and everyone needs in their collection. Surprisingly for a matte lipstick it is rather creamy and is easy to apply, I could in no way apply this without a mirror or anything but it does however glide easily over the lips, not creasing into lines like some other matte lipsticks. 

The staying power of this lipstick is like no other, as I said, I wore this on Christmas day from 9am until late in the night. Inbetween that I had a three course Christmas Eve and lots to drink. I still had a lovely red stain to my lips just before i took my make up off at the end of the day and that was without reapplying once! 

Quick And Easy Work Make Up

So you get called into work last minute and you’re not the slightest bit ready, what do you do?
This is exactly what’s been happening to me the last few weeks, I’m chilling in my pjs and then all of a sudden work wants me in, in half hour! I’ve gotten my last minute work make up down to a T now and I’ll wear it even when I’m not rushing for work. I like to go basic but put together, and this is how I achieve that look.

Face
I start off by using a small pump of my Match Perfection Foundation and blend that all over my face. I then take collections lasting perfection concealer and apply that under my eyes to highlight and cover any darkness. Next ill powder which I think is essential for work as you’ll most probably be working hard and sweating. To complete the face I’ll apply a little bit of NYC’s Smooth Skin Bronzer and a bit of Sleeks Rose Gold blush on the apples of my cheeks.

Eyes
This is my favourite part, it’s SO easy but looks as though it’s taken a while, all I did was take a beautiful brown eyeshadow with gold glitters in  and blended that all over my lid, crease and under my eye. Then just applied a quick coat of the Rimmel Wonder’ful mascara the eye look is finished!

Lips
I like something natural but long lasting for work so I took a collection cream puff matte lip cream in cotton candy. This stuff sort of dries on your lips and stains them for around 5 hours which is great for work when you have no time for touch ups.

Mac Rebel

Ahhh I finally have this little beauty, the very first Mac lipstick that I wanted. This is, in my opinion a lipstick shade that would suit everyone as long as you have the confidence to rock a bold lip. Mac’s Rebel is a pinky mid toned purple shade with a satin finish which gives it an almost glossy look on the lips. It’s the most perfect Autumn/Winter shade and I already know that i’m going to be wearing it to death for the rest of this year. Rebel is a long lasting lipstick, but because of this is does have the tendency to feel drying after a few hours wear so it’s best to make sure you have conditioned lips before applying it.  Rebel is the sort of shade that can be worn with any make up look and works great day or night. I like to wear it with a matte smokey eye for a day time look, and then if I want to go all out at night, I’ll wear it with a intense, glittery smokey eye and killer lashes. If you are the sort of person who is scared of wearing a dark lip but wants to try, I think Rebel is the perfect one to start with as it is really easy to apply and looks good no matter what your skin tone. Oh and it smells amazing! 

Have you tried Mac’s Rebel?

The Vampire Diaries Inspired | Last Minute Halloween Make Up Tutorial

I’m a HUGE fan of TVD so I wanted to incorporate it into my Halloween look this year and decided to go for a vampire. This make up is so simple to do, and unless you want to use the blood, everything can be done with things you probably already have in your make up kit. This is also a great look to do for a last minute costume, just throw on all black and follow this make up look.

Without blood

With blood

How To Do It

You want to start by taking your normal foundation and lightly applying it over your face, feel free to mix in a pale foundation at this point depending on your preference. You then want to heavily contour using a grey toned matte bronzer and applying it along your cheekbones and temples, you don’t want to be light with this as you want to look as though your face is sunken in.

For the eyes take a shimmery red eye shadow and place it all over the lid and on the lower lash line, then take a copper eyeshadow and place it in the crease and blend it upto your browbone. Then take a matte black eyeshadow onto a pencil brush and pat it into the outer v and blend. You can then add an optional flick of liquid liner.

To create the veins under the eyes, you first want to cover the entire under eye area in a white eyeshadow, then take a matte yellow shadow and apply it lightly just below the eye. For the actual veins I took a mix of red and black face paint on a paint brush but you can achieve the same look using eyeshadow. You want to slowly create lighting type lines from the bottom of your eye outwards until you get your desired effect.

Lastly apply a dark red lipstick and then you may optionally drip some fake blood from either side of your lips and add fangs. And there you go, quick, easy and affordable vampire look!

What are you going as for Halloween this year?

My Top Autumn/Fall Lipstick Picks

Autumn is FINALLY upon us, which means darker lipsticks are appropriate again! These are the ones that I’m going to be wearing the most this season.

Catrice Ultimate Colour – 110 Pink Me Up!
This colour is a slightly darker dupe for Macs all fired up, and is the perfect shade if you love wearing pink lipstick but want to go for a darker shade in the colder months. It’s so creamy and lasts a good amount of time on the lips too.

Avon Ultra Colour Lipstick – Red
I’ve had this lipstick for a good two years now and it’s my staple red lipstick. I personally think that red lipstick looks good all year around, but I love it particularly in the autumn as it’s not too light or too dark. This one is so moisturizing, lasts pretty much all day and makes your teeth look amazing! You can get this here

Calvin Klein Creme Lipstick – Dangerous

 I love this lipstick SO much! Its one of my all time favourites and it’s actually really cheap. The colour is hard to describe, but it’s a mix between a dark red, brown and purple, I think it would look beautiful on so many skin tones and to me it’s just the ultimate autumn shade! You can get this for a bargain price of £1.99 here

Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick – 330 Sloane’s Plum

This shade my not be for everyone and it is very daring with it being a deep plum shade and the tendency to make your teeth look yellow, but I really like it. If you’re into bold lips you need to get your hands on this. It’s an intense plum colour which looks amazing paired with a natural eye look for the daytime and a dark smokey eye for a gorgeous, glam, autumn evening look. You can buy it here

What’s your favourite autumn lipstick?

My Holy Grail Foundation | Rimmel Match Perfection Review

I’m going to start by saying this foundation is so underrated it’s unbelievable! Many other Rimmel foundations such as the Wake Me Up and hyped up a lot in the blogging world but I see very little talk of the Match Perfection. I have tried both and I personally prefer match perfection and it’s cheaper!

I first used this foundation around 2 years ago when I was looking for a purse friendly, everyday foundation At the time I was using studio fix fluid by mac on a daily basis and loved full coverage, matte foundations, so although I liked Match Perfection it wasn’t a huge stand out product to me, it just did the job. After I got through my first bottle I didn’t bother re purchasing it as I missed wearing my full coverage matte foundation everyday and went back to that for about a year. Then around a year ago whilst at my local boots I seen that they were selling Match Perfection for £6.99 so I had to pick it up, I applied it the next day and I fell in love with it this time around. It totally converted me to more natural looking foundation and I now love the look of glowy skin. Whilst wearing this foundation, so many people commented on how lovely my skin looked and asked what foundation I was wearing, I’ve never had this wearing any other foundation before including mac!

The Review
Match perfection is said to be designed to adapt to your skin tone, so that you get a great colour match making it look very natural, like your skin but better. It applies like an absolute dream, goes on without and patches, giving a medium coverage (when built up), natural glowy finish. I wouldn’t say it’s matte but I wouldn’t say it’s extremely dewy either. It’s the perfect middle ground, and makes your skin look so healthy, which is one of the reasons why I love it so much.

I get the shade 103 True Ivory which is the perfect match for my skin tone, it’s also one of the only drugstore foundations that isn’t too pink. It has the perfect mix of pink and yellow within it. My skin is dry combination meaning my cheeks get dry but my t zone gets a little oily after around 4/5 hours wear, compared to a lot of cheaper foundations Match perfection lasted around 9/10 hours on me without needing any touch ups!

after 8 hours wear with no touch ups.
This is the cheapest Rimmel foundations available and I think the most overlooked, if you are looking for a cheap, medium coverage, natural looking foundation I would so recommend you go out and buy this. You can also see this foundation used in my natural college tutorial here

Smokey Eyes & Nude Lips

One of my most worn make up looks is a smokey eye and a nude lip, using the Naked palette and Mac Creme Cup lipstick.
I will do my every day face routine the simply take the shade half baked, apply it to my lid, then use buck through the crease, a little bit of darkhorse in the outer v, blend and add then add some mascara and maybe a flick of eyeliner. For the lips my staple pinky nude is Mac’s Creme Cup this compliments the smokey eye beautifully and completes the look.
I think this is a timeless, classic look that will never go out of style. It takes around 10 minutes to do and looks so put together. This is my go to look and I’d say I wear it at least 4/5 times a week, and even if I am wanting something more evening appropriate or dramatic I’ll simply do the same eye make up and just swap the nude lips for a red.
What is your staple make up look?

Estée Lauder Sumptuous Extreme Waterproof Mascara

After receiving a sample of the original sumptuous extreme mascara and falling in love with it, I picked up a full sized one in waterproof as my mascara always seems to smudge throughout the day. I’m going to start by saying this mascara is not cheap by all means, it’s priced at £23 which is expensive, but mascara is one of those make up products that I’m willing to spend more money on to get better quality and results.

 

The Wand

The wand on this mascara is quite big, and can look quite daunting when you first open it but the length of the wand makes it so easy to fully cover your lashes in one coat. As big as the want is, I find it easy to use on the inner comer lashes too which with most bigger wands is impossible. When it comes to the bottom lashes the wand is unfortunately just way too big. Due to the size on it the wand just swaps the lower lashes and causes major panda eyes.

The Formula

The formula of this mascara is very wet but it dries quickly and doesn’t transfer on to your eyelids. The mascara not only adds massive amount of volume to your lashes it also makes them look up to 10x longer. I unfortunately don’t have the longest lashes but when I’ve used this mascara I regularly get compliments on how long my lashes look. The product claims to never clump your lashes and even after I have applied 4/5 coats I haven’t experienced clumping of any kind, my lashes always feel lightweight and I can rub and tug at my eyes without experiencing any flakiness. This is probably one of the best waterproof mascaras I have ever used! Not only does it not smudge or transfer in hot weather or when I am sweaty, it doesn’t come off whilst in the shower, under water or with my regular cleaning water, which brings me on to how hard it is to remove. Being waterproof you obviously expect it not to come off easily which is a good thing, but this mascara will only come off your eyelashes with a lot of eye make up remover and tugging. I like to put some of my No7 eye make up remover on a cotton pad and place it on my eyes for around 30 seconds or so and then rub it off. So if you’re looking for a mascara that adds massive amount of length to your lashes, doesn’t budge all day and is able to be layered without clumping the Estée Lauder Sumptuous Extreme Mascara is for you.

Product: 8/10
Value: 7/10
Ease of Use: 3.5/5
Packaging:5/5