LIPSTICK I LOVE: REVLON SUPER LUSTROUS

One of my favourite day-to-day lipsticks is from Revlon's 'Super Lustrous' line and it come in the colour '003 Mauve it Over'.

As the name suggests this is a mauve-ish nude colour and although it looks quite dark on the lips it actually matches my natural colour fairly well, creating a my lips but better kind of effect. This colour is from the matte range but it definitely isn't drying and works wonderfully with a gloss if I'm after a more shiney finish. Usually though I'm happy to wear this alone without any liner even for a super natural every day look. 

The packaging for this feels a little cheap in my opinion but it looks quite chic and it does it's job just fine I think. Nothing too fancy but nice enough. 

The colour pay off with this is very good, the type that I would expect from a high end product not a drugstore one. I have only tried this colour in this line but assume the others are the same. I will be trying another one soon so will keep you updated!  

There's 6 colours in this collection and you can get yours here for £7.49 - Bargin!

SPRING NAILS - STRAWBERRY

Barry M Nail Paint in 309 Strawberry - £2.99

FOUNDATION WEEK - THE OTHERS

I've decided to round up the week with a quick review of 5 of my tried and tested foundations. 

Bobbi Brown BB Cream  - Light - £29

Pros:

- Light weight feeling

- SPF 35

- This smells quite strong when first applied but I quite like it! And it doesn't linger on the skin

- Extremely easy to blend and quick to apply

Cons:

- Very light coverage - I don't see much difference on my skin

- Transfers quite easily onto clothes 

- Not particularly long lasting but can be helped with powder/ setting spray and a primer

- Poor range of shades

Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation - Peach Ivory - £34

Pros:

- Lovely natural coverage - not too matte and not too dewy, the perfect medium

- Will work with every skin type

- When blended correctly this shouldn't cling to dry patches

- Buildable coverage from light to full

- Lasts a good few hours 

Cons:

- Needs to be touched up throughout the day to prevent breaking up

- If not shaken well before used this is very watery and difficult to work with

- Pricey at £34

No7 Beautifully Matte Mousse Foundation - Cool Beige - £13.50

Pros:

- Natural medium coverage

- Affordable

- Mattifying for oily skin types

Cons:

- Transfers very easily

- Not very long lasting at all

- Will not work on dry skin types - this clings to even the slightest dry spot

- Feels heavy on the skin

Rimmel Wake Me Up - True Ivory - £8.99

Pros:

-Very affordable for a quality product

- Gives a lovely light weight finish

- Easy to blend and apply

- Buildable coverage

Cons:

- Oxidises after application

- Doesn't last very long on the skin

Chanel Lift Lumiere - Clair - £38

Pros:

- Very dewy finish - I like it

- SPF 15

- Wide range of colours 

- Light to medium coverage

- Long lasting

Cons:

- Personally I think this would be better on more mature skin - I don't think I can see all of the benefits

- Can not be built to a high coverage 

- Very expensive for an average 30ml bottle

- Bulky packaging- not good for travel

FOUNDATION WEEK - KEVYN AUCOIN SENSUAL SKIN ENHANCER

So this one has taken me multiple tries to decide what I think but I want to love it so much! - the Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer

This is a product that I've had for a long time and my opinion changes on it every time I use it!! It's a teeny tiny pot of a thick 'skin enhancer' - this isn't strictly a foundation and I find it best to be used a concealer. 

I used to use this product all the time as a foundation by just blending away at it with a stippling brush - and when I say 'blending away' I mean you really do have to blend, blend, blend. It's so thick that it's quite difficult to move on the face and requires a lot of effort to stop it from looking cakey. It is buildable but there's not much need as this is very, very high coverage when used in this way. It covers everything, spots, discolouration on the face, under eye circles and even my rosacea. If you have the time to blend this out properly it really does give a flawless finish. I wouldn't call it dewy but it's certainly not matte, it's a nice middle ground. It doesn't sink into my pores and while it doesn't stay put all day it does for a good few hours on my skin, and when it starts to move I find just going over it again with a brush or some powder sorts it out.

So, why is this not my wonder foundation? To be honest I just do not have  time for this! I want to spend 10 minutes on my make up on a morning before work not an hour! If this isn't blended and worked into the skin enough I find it ends up looking cakey, thick and almost sticky. Everything I don't want!

This morning I applied this by mixing it with my daily moisturiser and was over the moon with the results. It took barely any blending at all, kept 80% of the coverage and still looked flawless although slightly shinier. Using this product in this way is much more moisturising for your skin and feels lighter when you're wearing it too . Lovely.

What's my problem now you ask? It just didn't wear well on my skin. Now, to be fair I wore this from 7 am to 6 pm without touching it up at all so for 11 hours wear it did pretty well, but just not well enough for my picky tastes! it moved on my face and creased to a point where it looked like I needed to reapply or wash my face! Again, this was 11 hours so I did need to wash my face and I wasn't expecting it to still be flawless, but I would have liked it to be a little less obvious that it needed sorting out.

I can see this being a product that I will battle with for years to come. I just can not make up my mind!!

I would 100% repurchase this even if I make the decision that it will never be the foundation for me, It is an amazing concealer and although the little pot only holds 18g of product this is so highly pigmented that you only need a smidgen at a time - less than a pea for your entire face - and it will last for a very long time! I feel that I'll get a lot of use out of this as a foundation when I'm travelling as it is so small and easy to transport and it is so multi- use for a short period of time I could use this as my foundation and concealer!

I also think I will get a lot of use out of this through summer as mixing it with moisturiser can turn this into a great alternative for tinted moisturiser. It's almost DIY allowing you to build the coverage and pigmentation. I would only use it like this on days when I won't be doing much though - I don' t think I'll be using it again for work!

I'd recommend everyone tries out this if you haven't already. It's on the pricier side at £35 but it will honestly last you for so long (I didn't believe the girl at the counter when she told me that!) and if nothing else it really is one of the best concealers I've ever tried. Every review that I read of this seems to be positive! Everyone seems to love it I just need to learn how!! You can pick up a pot for yourself here, it comes in a variety of shades so I'm sure there'll be one to match you!

Let me know if you've used this before and how you think it works best! How do you apply this for the best flawless foundation finish?

FOUNDATION WEEK - BOURJOIS 123 PERFECT

Today's foundation is one that I've had for a while and actually hauled on this blog - Bourjois 123 Perfect Foundation

What they say:

Bourjois 1.2.3. Perfect Foundation gives a flawless even complexion* for 16hrs, thanks to a new generation formula.

3 correcting pigments for zero imperfections:

1. Yellow pigments: Anti dark circles
2. Mauve pigments: Anti dull complexion
3. Green pigments: Anti redness

• 24hr hydration and anti-shine: cotton flower extract
• SPF 10
• Medium coverage, yet lets skin breathe
• Soft and smooth formula for a second skin finish

What I say:

I applied this using my Real Techniques Expert Face Brush just to keeping things fair between the foundations that I try this week. I found that this applied really well with the brush although I did have to pat it down a little with my fingers to remove some streaky areas. The coverage is meduim and dewy - a look that I LOVE  - but I was pretty disappointed to see that my rosacea shows through this even after building up the product. 

This does not sink into my pores, doesn't smell, doesn't break me out and has a lovely finish. It does transfer onto clothes so I would say to set this with powder. This works well on my dry to combination skin but I would maybe look further into it if you have particularly oily skin as I have a strange feeling that it may melt away - I've not yet tried this in hot weather.

So here's what I think of Bourjois claim:

1. Yellow pigments: Anti dark circles - can't comment - I used concealer before applying the foundation and a little more after which I guess suggests that it didn't do the best job for me. however, it is very glowy so if you just have a tiny bit of darkness you probably wouldn't need concealer. I Imagine this is good with dark spots on skin too.
2. Mauve pigments: Anti dull complexion - Very true - I completely agree with this! Gives a lovely finish and definitely brightens my dull looking skin.
3. Green pigments: Anti redness - Hard one this. The foundation certainly covers the minor redness around my nose but does not cover my rosacea. I'd say for a normal amount of redness this would be fine but not for redness on my scale. I will say that the colour I have in this is WAY to dark for my skin which probably isn't helping with the covering? maybe? I want this to be right!!

• 24hr hydration and anti-shine: cotton flower extract - very hydrating on my skin and dewy not shiney- agree
• SPF 10 - great - no flash back in photos so far
• Medium coverage, yet lets skin breathe - light to medium by my standards  - buildable and doesn't feel heavy 
• Soft and smooth formula for a second skin finish - I think that this is natural looking - more a day time foundation than something for a night out.

Overall? I think that this is a really nice foundation. I wore this today for about 6 hours and only saw a little bit of break up around my T zone. I have worn this at work for 10 hours before and I would say it needs to be touched up to stay flawless but it stays pretty well compared to other drugstore foundations I've tried.

I would buy this again - it's not perfect but will be lovely for summer and for days when my skin is looking a bit better and I'm not too worried about the coverage. This is a product that I'd like to always have in my collection but not my everyday foundation. I'd recommend trying it out. You can pick a bottle up here for just £10.99

FOUNDATION WEEK - ESTEE LAUDER DOUBLE WEAR

Happy Easter Sunday eveyone!! and welcome to Foundation week.

The first foundation that I will be talking about this week is the Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay In Place Makeup.

What they say:

'Keeps skin looking fabulous, breathing comfortably through heat, humidity and activity without changing colour, fading or coming off on clothes. Natural matte finish and SPF10 sunscreen to protect skin. Application tip: For best results, apply your Double Wear Stay-in-Place Makeup SPF 10 with a Foundation Brush on top of your Repair and Moisturiser products.'

What I say:

I applied this today using my Real Techniques Expert Face Brush (which is really nice by the way) and found that using this method I had to use quite a lot of product. I have no idea if this is a regular thing with this foundation, if it's the brush I was using or if I'm just greedy with coverage but it isn't a big problem. One thing that I loved about applying this is that I was able to layer it over the areas that I wanted more coverage without it caking, even on my dry skin. My rosacea peaked through this a teeny tiny bit - much less than any other foundation I've tried and just enough to leave me with a healthy glow.

This did settle into my pores a little bit but again no worse than any other foundation I've tried. It gives a matte finish so if that's not what you're after this is not for you. Personally I didn't mind it and it didn't cling to any dry patches I have.

My powder and concealer blended nicely with this and it hasn't oxidised at all through the day. I've spent the day playing with my two year old niece in a rather cold garden and to be honest I can't see much change in my makeup - pretty good!

Overall I'd recomend this product to anyone looking for something long-lasting and high coverage. I'd say it probably looks a little better on people with oily skin but I haven't had any problems with my dryness. 

To be completely honest as much as I like this I can't say whether or not I would buy this again as it's not quite the holy-grail foundation that I'm looking for but I will certainly finish this happily before starting to look at other options.

You can get yours here for £28.50 - not a bad price for a good product.

If you have anything to ask me about this foundation please feel free to comment below or ask me via Twitter :)

A MAKE UP CLEAN OUT

Today I decided that it was time to take a look through the make up that I have stored away and haven't used for a while.

I checked use by dates, disposed of products that I know I'll not use again and took some of my favourite products and swapped out with products in my more everyday collection.

I picked a few of my favourites/ least favourites to share with you all, enjoy!!

Favourites

Two faced Natural Eyes Kit

Maybelline Colour Tattoo - On and On Bronze

Maybelline Colour Tattoo - Pink Gold

Maybelline Eyeshadow Quad

Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara

Soap and Glory Bronzer

Least Favourites

Maybelline Colour Tattoo - Eternal Gold

Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream

YUCK - Such a dirty tube! Sorry!!

Maybelline Dream Soft Blush

It may look a little like I dislike Maybelline but that is not true!! - Some of my favourite products that i use every single day are from this brand - it just so happens there are a few products I'm not keen on too!!!