L'Oreal Nude Magique Eau De Teint

After the huge hoo-ha surrounding the US version of this product, marketed as Liquid Powder over there, I knew I wanted to try it from the first reviews I saw online. A product that's lighter than water? What does that even mean??

What this seems to translate into is that it is a very watery product. It has a very light amount of coverage but has a really soft finish, both in the appearance and in the feel of the liquid. Eau de Teint doesn't come with a pump so that's not ideal for some people but it applies incredibly evenly when applied to the skin. I just buff this in with my fingers rather than a brush because it really is so runny that I don't think a brush would do it much good!

I purchased this in the lightest shade, 100 Porcelain but it's actually got quite a lot of colour given it's a pale shade. I've swatched it alongside Liz Earle's Signature Foundation in 01 and Collection's concealer in Fair to show the colour difference. It does look incredibly dark in these photos but it's quite a good match on my face and actually matches better than the Liz Earle foundation (which is strange because the LE foundation seems to get darker even though it's lighter!).

Packaging wise it's not the most logical...a glass bottle without a pump isn't ideal for transporting or for anyone with a full make-up bag. The design on the packaging is also completely different to the US product - this isn't called Liquid Powder and the bottle isn't frosted white near the top but I think the actual product is generally the same kind of thing.

I'd say this provides around 6 - 7 hours of wear with the usual additions to the face ; bronzer/blusher/highlighter etc but if I were to wear this for a longer time I'd want to wear a powder on top to ensure it would stay and would be much easier to top up without the added stress of not spilling the liquid everywhere.

Overall this is probably a 6/10 for me. The packaging isn't particularly user friendly but the product itself does the job for an everyday work kind of make-up look.

This is on offer for now for £6.99 at most drugstores but usually will sell for £9.99 after the introductory offer is over.

PS: I am sorry for the lack of posts in the last couple of weeks. I've been super busy with work but I have also just come down with a horrible cold, woe is me! I hope to resume proper posting in the next week or so, thank you for sticking with me xoxo 

Origins VitaZing SPF15

Origins is not a brand I'm particularly well acquainted from personal use but like most brands I've read a ton about them on the internet.

Last weekend I was looking for a new foundation or foundation alternative and this was suggested to my by a lady at the Origins counter in Debenhams.

It is essentially a tinted moisturiser but for review purposes we'll look at the real name of "Energy boosting moisturizer with Mangosteen". (I have no idea what Mangosteen is...).

When first applied it is a thin, white liquid but on closer inspection it has tiny black speckles in it. You're supposed to apply it in the morning to clean skin and you don't need another product underneath so it's a replacement for both a moisturiser and a skin base like a light foundation. It replaces missing pigments in the skin to create an even skin colour and contains SPF15

The main reason that VitaZing was recommended to me was because I struggle to find a good colour match for my foundations; some products oxidise over the course of the day or are too orange to begin with etc. The idea that this would just automatically match to my skin was great because it was such minimal effort on my part! I haven't had any issues with the colour match so it ticks that box for sure.

For me this is a really good product for "weekend make-up". It's a little dewy which is fine but I like to add a powder product over the top so I still opt for my Naked Flushed palette to add some blush whilst dampening the dewy effect on my cheeks and forehead. It doesn't boast a particularly high coverage but for under my eyes or on blemishes I just apply my concealer to even everything out and I think it works really well.

I would recommend applying this with clean hands rather than with a brush, it would just get lost in the bristles of a stippling or foundation brush. I apply mine with my index finger and rub it in circular motions to ensure that I haven't missed anywhere. My only warning is to make sure when you're finished that you rub across your face gently to make sure that there's nothing that's clogged together to create a darker patch. I have found that if I don't check I could leave with a slightly thick patch that looks too dark on random areas of my face.

Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone with relatively clear skin who wants a quick and fuss-free make-up base that literally takes about a minute to apply evenly. I can't comment on fine lines or wrinkles because I don't have any but for me once it's on, it's on. Its staying power is aided by whatever products you apply over the top (like I said, for me it's a dash of my Naked Flushed palette) and the staying power of those products individually but for me it lasts between 4-6 hours depending on the environments I find myself in.

You can buy this with a price tag for £28.00 /50ml from Origins counters and the Origins website here (click!).

MAC - Mineralize Skin Finish in Adored

MAC's Mineralize Skin Finish products seem to be everyone's fail safe highlighter in the last couple of years. I absolutely love my Urban Decay Naked Flushed palette for contouring and highlighting but this MAC highlighter is beautiful both in the pan and on the skin for a peachy glow. A mix of pearly pink and iridescent peach "Adored" is a shade I can't help but use this on an almost daily basis!
It doesn't quite look like a natural flush when it's applied but it gives a little more dimension to my cheekbones and doesn't necessarily need any blusher blended along with it.

I've had this since mid-July and I've yet to hit the pan, although I've heard that these products look like they last for months and then BAM you've hit pan and it's the worst day of your life without even a hint of preparation. Le sigh! That aside I'll be using this product over and over until it reaches its demise and then I'll be buying another one or two or three in a variety of shades to keep my skin shimmering!

You can buy this shade and a number of others here (click!) for an RRP of £22.00

Quick & easy back to school rescue kit

So, back to school is rapidly approaching. I have recently attained an assistant position in an upper school so this evening I began to get prepared for my first inset day on Monday.
I can remember exactly what going back to school felt like throughout all my school years and my university degree so I thought I'd put together a little rescue kit for those days where everything is going wrong and you just need a little cuddle!

I have included : pain medication, hayfever / allergy tablets, a nail file, clear nail polish, intense lip balm, mouth irritation gel, anti-bacterial hand gel, intense moisturiser, a hair clip, 2 hair bands, bobby pins, eye drops, chapstick a piece of gum and a little perfume dispenser filled with one of my body sprays.

You could include absolutely anything from tampons, toothpaste, a toothbrush, cuticle oil, your favourite nail polish shade, mini mascara, earrings, cotton buds, spot treatment, concealer, cuticle trimmer, cough sweets, tweezers..... the list is endless!!

Do you have any essentials you will be taking when you head back to the classroom? Let me know, there's room in my handbag for more!

Revlon Lip Butter - Cotton Candy

Amongst my Boots & Superdrug purchases last week was this little lip butter by Revlon. I was sucked in by the hype I had seen on twitter and YouTube and wanted to give it a go myself.

It's very basic packaging, a translucent pink plastic lid with a quilted effect and a squared off silver twist base like most lipsticks.

This is a shiny pink lip colour that needs two or three swipes to become noticeable. For me it's got too much of a sheen to it, it looks a little golden when I apply it so I haven't got much use out of it recently. Maybe a different shade would have suited me better so I don't think it's a bad product at all, the colour just wasn't for me.

I feel like this is a less expensive alternative to the No7 Sheer Temptation Lipstick which I reviewed here (click!). It's possible that the Revlon range is aimed at a slightly younger audience if these two products were to be compared both aesthetically and in terms of the product's colour payoff.

Do you have one of these Revlon lip butters? Which shade should I try next?

Maybelline Fit Me Anti-Shine Foundation Stick

I picked this up last week in Superdrug after seeing a few people on YouTube getting on well with it and because I was just intrigued as to how this product can battle shine without sacrificing on coverage.

The product description found here (click!) says:

"Our fresh foundation has an anti-shine core. 

It's ultra-light formula is enriched with powders to instantly absorb excess oil.

Controls shine for a natural-looking, flawless finish."

There's an inner core that is supposed to battle against shine and an outer core providing the foundation. It's probably a light level of coverage. It doesn't really present any moisturising properties so you'd have to moisturise beforehand. Application is simple, you twist the bottom like a lipstick and literally just swipe it onto your skin. I have blended with both my hands and with a Real Techniques Buffing Brush and there wasn't a huge difference in terms of the finish or product wasted.

For me, this product is fine for a drugstore product but with an £8.99 price tag I did expect a little more - not a lot more but I had hoped to at least feel satisfied with it even if I didn't love it. Unfortunately I just couldn't get on board with it. It doesn't have a particular scent or anything like that but it felt a little slippery when I had applied it. A bit like when you apply a primer and it feels kind of velvety and silky except unlike when using a primer there wasn't really anything that helped the foundation bond with my skin.

HOWEVER, it isn't all bad - the idea of it is incredibly innovative. As I said there's an inner core and an outer layer which work together to banish shine. The colour match was also a big deal for me, this is the first drugstore foundation that I was able to buy in store and use at home without any colour match problems whatsoever. I bought shade 120 Classic Ivory but there are six shades altogether. Not a huge range so it's possible I just got lucky.

I probably won't buy this product again purely because it just doesn't stand up next to my liquid foundations but I do think that for younger, teenage or middle school age skin this is perfectly acceptable for school day wear. If I hadn't tried out as much make-up as I have over the years I might feel differently but hey, sometimes things just aren't for me and that's fine too!

Maybelline Fit Me Anti-Shine Foundation Stick sells for £8.99 at Superdrug here (click!), Boots here (click!) and other Maybelline stockists.

Maybelline Color Tattoo 24hr - Eternal Gold

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed the Maybelline Color Tattoo 24hr eye shadow pot in the shade On and on Bronze (you can read it here, click!). 

I'm bringing you this shade just as a comparison rather than a full review because I noticed a stark difference between the two products and it's not just their colour.

As you can see this shade is a vibrant, metallic gold. It's the same texture as my other pot and the pigmentation and buildability is on par with it but I noticed that it creases much quicker and much more than the bronze shade. It's an absolutely beautiful shade in the pot but when I applied it it seemed to have so many more sparkly particles - does that make sense? It looked grainy and as if it had separated slightly which doesn't occur with On and on Bronze.

Due to this little difficulty I will probably be using this sparingly or to add a brighter shimmer to my inner corner on slightly above my crease but I can't use it as an all over shadow colour because it's a little too difficult to work with. Has anyone had the same experience with this shade or any of the others? Let me know in the comments!

Topshop Lipstick - Nevada

Topshop's make-up range surprised me when I first bought it - I was thinking it would be your average high street fashion does make-up thing but I was mistaken, and I'm glad.

I only own one other lipstick by Topshop and it's the highly coveted Pillow Talk. I've had it for a while and I get a fair bit of wear from it given that I don't wear lipstick that often. When I was in London last week I had already thrown caution to the wind with spending when I kissed goodbye to my cash in Victoria's Secret so I treated myself to a smaller purchase in Topshop - a lipstick in the shade Nevada.

The packaging is faultless and fuss free. A cardboard outer box with the plastic lipstick tube inside which closes with a little clicker lid.

 Nevada is a pinky brown nude shade. It's creamy and soft and doesn't leave a matte finish. It's got a satin sheen to it and it wasn't particularly drying on me. I can't stand matte nude lipsticks since nude shades are relatively unforgiving as it is but a drying matte is to be avoided at all costs in my book! That's one reason why I like this shade - it's creamy and even under a gloss or balm it doesn't slip around and look badly applied.

I can't guarantee I'll get a lot of wear out of this shade on its own purely because I have very pigmented lips so for me this nude needs a lipliner to ensure the colour is evenly distributed. Having said that I really like the formula and the colour payoff with only one application is good for a high street product so I think with a little bit of patience and some practice with mixing shades I will be able to pair this lipstick with a smokey eye for my first work night out!

You can buy this lipstick online here (click!) for £8.

Marilyn Monroe x Mac Blush in Legendary

After convincing myself I didn't need anything from the Marilyn Monroe collection that was launched late last year I accidentally found myself buying this baby in Macy's in the Mall at Millenia in Orlando. I could have screamed I was so excited because I thought I'd missed my chance when it sold out in the UK, but I managed to save it a whole week before using it in order to take the perfect product photos.

I'm not sure how well these photos show the colour pay-off because I've looked at them a lot and been wearing the blusher all day so I'm used to it but I think it's pretty accurate (I have been known to be wrong before... like maybe once...in my science GCSE.......).

The packaging is amazing, it's beautifully shiny with a black and white photo of Marilyn Monroe on the lid of the pot with her signature and the MAC logo in a vibrant red. The blush itself is a coral tone with a light shimmer. I found I needed to coat my brush quite heavily but actually brush it on quite lightly on the apples of my cheeks with a light swipe going slightly further up towards my temples. This won't work for everyone and I know some people are dead set against applying blusher anywhere but directly on the apples of their cheeks but THAT'S OKAY. I'm only wearing foundation and this blush in the above photos meaning I hadn't contoured my cheekbones so allowing my blusher to be visible towards my temples gives my face a little more definition.

I think I paid around $20-25 for 0.21oz of this product - it isn't cheap but I think it's worth its price tag. Unfortunately this shade is NOT available outside of this collection which I am completely gutted about. There's not even a slightly similar shade as far as I know but I'm crossing my everything for something like this in another collection.

Do you have any of the other items from this collection? Link me your reviews because there was a highlighting powder I wanted but it was out of stock, dire!

Eyeko Skinny Eyeliner

After hearing and seeing a lot more about Eyeko recently I took a minute to research them. After launching in 1999 Eyeko seem to have gone from strength to strength. They have now recently given themselves a little make-over, and their new logo featuring a Twiggy-esque lash crown is right on point as they're focussing on their "quest for Big Eyes". 

As mentioned in my previous post I received this product in my Glossybox. At first I was dubious, and when you look at the pencil you can see why....

I opened it, showed the pencil to my flatmate and went "what the f is this for?!"...
The packaging states "Get a handle on your eyeliner! Even when you sharpen the pencil to the smallest nub the silver handle remains for longer use." which is logical but I have survived with the smallest eyeliner pencils known to humanity! Maybe I'll become more fond of this apparatus when I'm right at the end of the pencil...

The tip was nice and sharp when I removed the lid and first tested it as a swatch on my hand. On first application it looked black but after smudging it for comparison I saw it was very blue toned. I hadn't thought to check the colour but after seeing it looking blue-y the packet does infact say "Midnight Blue"

(Click to englarge)

As you can see from the photos this product applies evenly. I'm actually very impressed with the pigmentation and the softness of the pencil on my eyelid. I wore this from 10am until 10pm and the top line didn't smudge at all. My lower lash line was only affected because the wind made my eyes water today but since there's no claim of the product being waterproof it doesn't bother me at all that that happened. I've had compliments on my eyeliner from two different people and I didn't feel the need to reapply at all so I'm very impressed. 

I'll definitely be purchasing another colour when I start to run low on this pencil, I'll probably go for anything black or purple as I rarely wear blue but who knows, maybe I'll stock up on this Midnight Blue since it's worked such a treat! 

If you want to buy your own Eyeko Skinny Eyeliner for £9.50 then click here to go straight to their website!

I hope you like this as much as I do, love

currently having a fling with Benefit...

Today I have a few Benefit presents to tell you about. Firstly, two beautiful facial products, the Foamingly Clean facial wash and the Triple Performing facial emulsion (i.e. moisturiser!)

(They are the wrong way around in this photo compared to the first one, forgive me!)

These two products are amazing! The face wash removes all traces of face make-up and eye make up! I  haven't tried it with waterproof mascara but with non-waterproof Bad Gal mascara there's not a trace left! I love the moisturiser because a little goes a long way. I use 4 pumps from the bottle and this gives me about a penny size amount which covers my face. I'd recommend using both products together as they seem to compliment each other well, the cleanser sometimes leaves my skin feeling a little "squeaky"(...do you know what I mean?!) but the moisturiser takes that away.

On to the cosmetics: my lovely mum bought me both of these, I'm Glam Therefore I Am and Tan About Town. Both quite wittily named and both really handy to have when I don't have hours to get ready. My favourite is I'm Glam Therefore I Am as I've used pretty much everything in it. With 4 shimmery eye-shadow choices, a miniature Bad Gal mascara, Life on the List lipgloss, Girl Meets Pearl illuminator and Glamming face powder, surprisingly, it's not too big to carry around in a medium sized make up bag. They all make for the perfect natural look when applied.

 Tan About Town took some getting used to. I love the Bad Gal mascara again and I don't mind that it's a "sample" sized product, however I was quite disappointed by the size of the Some Kind-a Gorgeous foundation and Hoola. They are practically Thumbelina sized!

(Both Hoola and Some Kind-a Gorgeous are smaller than my little tin of Vaseline. Quite a let down.)

Unfortunately for me I can't use the foundation as I'm the palest person in the universe, but I've come to like Hoola. If you know your Benefit products it's a pretty much Dallas but without the shimmer.

Anyway, aside from that little moan I have actually fallen head over heels in love with Benefit after using these. They are perfect to carry around and use daily and Benefit never try to be something they're not. They have pretty packaging and quirky names and although all of these products retail full size for over £10 they are products I will use, repurchase and recommend to my friends.

Do you have any Benefit products you can recommend to me?? I haven't bought anything from them in years so please give me your favourites. 

I hope you're all making the most of the bank holiday, lots of love 

My Halloween Make Up

Like any student I am on a slightly tighter budget than on my gap year/any other year of my life, though I am fortunate enough to be able to call my parents and ask for a top-up if needs be! I was after a cheaper alternative to dressing up and looking like a pleb in a crap costume this year so my best friend and I decided to do our faces like Sugar Skulls. I was so, so pleased with the result and we had people complimenting us and asking for photos with us all night. ~celebrity lifestyle~ haha.

Here's a photo of what I looked like when my face was complete...

I could have done my whole face, but I found that actually only doing one half made it look much more dramatic as there was a contrast between the "normal" side and the skull side. 

I used a set of Snazaroo face paints that were £12.99 from my local fancy dress shop and a pack of 3 small brushes which was £2.79, a sponge and a very thin paintbrush that I usually use for nail art. It took around an hour and a half to complete and I found the colours lasted all night without running or smudging. The only problem I noticed was that the white did dry and crack a little bit after a few hours but as long as I didn't touch it there wasn't a major problem. All the colours are water based to the brushes are easy to wash and there's no staining of clothes with the more neutral colours. When I was home last night the face paints came off easily with a face wipe and my Garnier cleansing milk, so even in my intoxicated state I managed to avoid getting make up on my pillow!

What are you dressing up as for Halloween? Would you do the Sugar Skull look?

Lots of scary kisses!

xo xo