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?

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! 

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?

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

Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water V’s Nivea 3 In 1 Micellar Cleansing Water

Micellar cleansing waters are all the hype at the moment and I for one am a big fan. It started with the infamous bioderma which I haven’t tried but I do think it’s slightly overpriced for what it is, especially as there are so many cheaper versions on the market now. I think part of the reason cleansing waters are so popular is the fact they are so simple to use, they’re great for the lazy person inside everyone as you don’t have to rinse your face or pitch about with oils and creams. You simply just apply some of the cleansing water on to a cotton pad and wipe it over your face to remove all your make up and to cleanse your face.
I’ve tried out a good few cleansing waters over the recent months but I’ve now found my two favourites and I thought I’d do a little comparison.

The Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water retails at 3.99 for 400ml and the Nivea Daily Essentials 3 In 1 Sensitive Micellar Cleansing Water retails at £2.03 for 200ml. The Garnier cleanser is great value as you get 400ml, it does say on the bottle this is 200 uses worth which I personally think is a bit of an exaggeration but I have gone through a bottle before and it’s lasted me a good month and a half. The actual formula is surprisingly good at removing every bit of you make up and giving a deep cleanse, the one thing I would say though is that compared to the Nivea one this feels a lot harsher on the skin. The Nivea cleaning water feels very soft and moisturizing when you apply it but it doesn’t give such a deep clean feeling as the Garnier one. Both products have near the exact same ingredients but the Nivea cleanser has grape seed oil which is what I think gives it the softer and more mmoisturizing feel on the skin.
Overall I think the Nivea cleanser is the slightly better product simply due to the fact it feels softer on the skin but the Garnier cleanser is the best value due to the amount of product you get for the price, I do feel as though most Micellar waters do pretty much the same job so my advice would be to just get the one that’s going to be the best value.

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

Mac Pro Longwear Concealer

I finally picked up the Mac Pro Longwear concealer a few weeks ago and I am so so glad I did! I got the colour NC15 as I wanted to use it to highlight my under eye, this shade is perfect and I don’t find it that yellow compared to other NC products. I’ve been a huge fan of the Pro Long wear Foundation for a while now, and ever since I’ve wanted to try the concealer of the same name. The foundation is incredibly long wearing and doesn’t budge so I wanted to see if the concealer could do that same.

The Product
Even though I don’t suffer with the worst under eye circles or anything, this does completely hide any darkness I have and brightens up the area giving it a highlighted affect. I can imagine this being a holy grail product to many people with dark under eyes as it does mask any problems you have.
If I’m being honest I didn’t expect this concealer to last as long as the Pro Longwear foundation and I did think it would crease towards the end of the day. But to my amazement, after a full days wear there was no creasing, patchiness or dryness. It looked exactly the same as it did when I first applied it!
I’ve read a few reviews saying that they find this concealer to be drying. As I suffer with dry skin, I was worried that this stuff would cling to the dry patches under my eyes, but it doesn’t at all! I find that as long as my skin is moisturised before hand, it glides on and actually feels quite moisturising. Compared to the infamous Collection concealer I find this a lot less drying.

The Packaging
The one problem I have with the concealer is the packaging. It comes in a small glass bottle with a pump that dispenses way too much product for one use. During the first few days of using it I wasted a lot of product as I just didn’t need it all, but after a few days if you only do a half pump ( don’t press the pump all the way down) it should give you the perfect amount of product. If you still feel as though it’s dispensing too much I’d recommend you pumping some into a small travel pot and using it from there and then keeping any left over for next time.
Packaging: 4/10
Colour: 9/10
Overall: 9.5/10

The Best Budget Bronzer

If you know me you’ll know I am a HUGE bronzer fan and it’s probably my favourite part of putting make up on. I’ve gone through the stages of looking like an orange disco ball, looking like I have mud smeared on my cheekbones and everything else. I now believe I’ve almost mastered the art contouring/bronzing, I’ve tried both high end an low end bronzers and the product I’m about to review is honestly one of the best I’ve ever tried.

That product is the NYC Smooth Skin Bronzer in Sunny , this retails at £1.99, is extremely pigmented and is completely matte! The shade sunny is a light taupe colour with the perfect amount of brown and orange in it, it’s works great on both light to medium skin tones. It’s rare to find drugstore bronzers that aren’t packed with shimmer which is why the NYC bronzer is so popular. The matte finish makes it great for contouring as well as given an all over subtle bronzed look.

Another reason I love this bronzer is how great it works as an eyeshadow, which makes it handy when travelling. it looks amazing applied to the crease with a blending brush and also acts as a great transition shade!

Elf Beauty Book – Natural Look Review

I admittedly should have done a review on this product ages ago now but the truth is I simply can’t get a good picture of the eye make up when I’m wearing it, I can create so many beautiful looks with that product but I can’t seem to capture them with the rubbish quality of my iPhone 4 camera. Anyway on with the review.

I picked this eyeshadow palette/book up whilst at the Elf blogger event and I’ve used it a heck of a lot since then. The beauty books come with 6 eyeshadows to create a day look and a night look, an eyelid primer and a brown eyeliner pencil. The eyeshadows are amazingly pigmented and aren’t chalky at all, which i wasn’t expecting as I only paid £6 for it. The eyelid primer is mediocre and gives you around 4/5 hours of wear before creasing, I like to use my Avon eyelid primer with these shadows though as it gives them a longer wear. The eyeliner is great to use on the waterline and to gently line your top lid.

The Elf Beauty Books are great for beginners as they include a step by step guide on how to create an eyeshadow look and all 6 shadows are listed for what they should be used for. Along with the two looks you can create following the guide on the book, I have created many different eye looks using these 6 shadows and the palette is really versatile, they apply smoothly and don’t crease when wearing a good primer.

Pigmentation: 8/10
Longevity: 7/10
Value For Money: 10/10
Versatility: 9/10
Overall Rating: 9/10

Nars Nail Polish – Galathèe & Orgasm

I’ve had these two beauty’s of nail polishes in my collection for a few months now and I’ve never actually used them until now. Upon painting my nails with Galathèe, (a dove grey with a hint of blue from the fall 2013 collection) I thought it would look lovely with another Nars polish I have in Orgasm, a sheer peachy pink with gold shimmer (very similar to the blush of the same name).

Application:
The application of these nail polishes are super easy and both shades dry really quick. With orgasm you need around 3/4 coats for it to look even remotely opaque but I like the sheerness to it so it’s fine with me. Galathèe is a lot more opaque and I only needed 2 coats to achieve a perfect result.

Lasting power:
I’ve had both nail polishes on my nails for around three days now and there’s only slight chips in Galathèe and none in Orgasm.

Final Verdict:
7/10. I love both of these shades and how easy the application is but I still find it very expensive (£14.50) for a nail polish and you can find close dupes out there.

Do you have any dupes for these nail polishes?