March Beauty Favourites

I am way behind with my posts for this month trying to balance work and constantly working evening, I try to spend what little spare time I have with my little family...my little one is so chatty and full of personality these days so I try not to miss anything! There are so many things I've been getting good use out of recently so here are my favourite beauty products for the month of March.

The Body Shop Strawberry Body Polish
£5.00(75ml) or £10.00(200ml) from The Body Shop here.
When I'm doing the whole full wack body exfoliating, shaving shebang, I tend to use a seperate body exfoliator and then follow up with a shaving foam or shower gel so I have a good lather to work with. This not only exfoliates but it lathers up as well which is brilliant and saves time using additional products. It smells beautiful of course, it isn't too harsh and leaves my skin feeling really soft.
La Roche-Posay Effaclar Purifying Foaming Gel
£9.75(200ml) from Escentual here.
I've been in urgent need of a cleanser suited to current skincare concerns and this always does the trick. It makes my skin feel so lovely and clean, it doesn't irritate my face at all and as it doesn't contain soap I never experience any dryness after using.
L'oreal Skin Perfection 15 Second Miracle Cleansing Oil 
£6.79(150ml) from Feel Unique Here or Boots.
Cleansing oils have slowly become my go to product to remove make-up as I tend to wear quite a thick foundation base and I have found that oil breaks up my make-up the easiest. I had previously just used my DHC Cleansing Oil sample but spotted this in Boots on offer and thought I would give it a whirl. I massage two pumps of this into my skin and it gets rid of everything.
No7. Total Renewal Micro-dermabrasion Exfoliator
£11.50(150ml) from Boots here.
Doing a bit of research on the best exfoliators out there, I came across this several times and decided to grab it whilst I had a voucher to use. I haven't really used a face exfoliator for ages now and generally just relied on flannel or my Clarisonic Mia to exfoliate. This product is well worth trying out, it leaves my skin feeling super smooth and I think it has reduced the redness of my acne scarring to some extent
ELF Studio Makeup Mist & Set
£3.95(60ml) from ELF here.
This little beaut had been gathering dust for some reason in my dressing table drawer when I had a lightbulb moment one day and ended up rediscovering just what an amazing little budget buy this is. I have been using quite a thick foundation recently in the form of the Rimmel Lasting Finish Foundation which can sometimes make me look a little cakey. A few spritz' of the ELF setting spray on my face and my make-up magically appears seamlessly blended in with not a trace of the dreaded cake face in sight.

Blink+Go Eyeshadow and Blush Pallette
I've found myself reaching for this soooo much recently, the shades are beautifully soft and the pigmentation is spot on. Unfortunately this palette has been discontinued now, which is such a shame as I particularly love the khaki and brown eyeshadow shades as they create a not too OTT smokey eye for the daytime.
Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in Notting Hill Nude
£6.49(150ml) from Feel Unique here or Boots.
This is my fail safe lip colour - swatches and review here - for when I don't feel like being adventurous (that would be most of the time) and it lasts for a pretty decent amount of time. It doesn't hurt that I love the tacky purple packaging although I think the newest formula is in a slightly more modern looking tube. A great budget beauty buy nonetheless for ladies who love lipstick.
Nails Inc. Elizabeth Street  Nail Polish
£11.00(10ml) from Look Fantastic here.
I love a good pink nail manicure and this is one of my favourite baby pink polishes. The formula is awesome, the longevity is good with Seche Vite top coat applied over and it's just such a pretty colour.

A Few New Additions...

After taking in all the hype surrounding Rimmels Apocalips Lip Lacquer's, I of course headed to Boots when I discovered they had a 3 for 2 on all Rimmel products. I looked through swatches, upon swatches and decided I was going to go for three shades from the Apocalips line; Celestial, Luna and Nude Eclipse. Unfortunately, they had sold out of Nude Eclipse online and in every Boots I cared to drag myself to which was a bit disappointing as this looked like a gorgeous colour when I swatched it on my hand. Instead I ended up purchasing Luna and Celestial, and not being one to miss out on a bargain I purchased the Moisture Renew Lipstick in Notting Hill Nude, as I've heard lots of good things about these lipsticks.

  

Apocalips Lip Lacquers
I'm honestly so impressed with these!! I haven't really dabbled with budget, lip products for a while and in the past I haven't really been impressed so these were a bit of a jump on the bandwagon purchase, so glad I did though. I love the doe foot applicator and I've found that the bottle design somewhat helps you to apply the perfect amount. If you happen to purchase one of these, you should notice when you first pull the applicator out, the neck of the bottle squidges the excess out and leaves you with the perfect amount to apply. They are super pigmented and when I compared my lips to the actual content in the bottle, it is pretty much match for match; you definitely cannot be disappointed with the colour payoff. As I'm a bit of a a wimp with semi-bright colours, I blot and dab to my hearts content which helps the lacquer not to settle in any dry bits of my lips and obviously takes away that initial "in your face" colour. For the swatches below, I've layered on the lacquer twice as it didn't seem to be showing up as bright as it is in person, so hopefully I've given you a good representation of how these particular shades look.

  

Celestial

I'd describe this as a blue toned pink and I think this would suit a lot of skin tones. It is such a gorgeous colour although I think this will end up being saved for the more heavily made up, special occasions ;)

Luna

I actually wore this today and was so scared initially but even the make-up hating boyfriend gave his approval and he normally hates anything other than nude, natural i.e. boring plain old me. This is such a gorgeous peachy colour and will be perfect for Spring.

Moisture Renew Lipstick
 I'd heard quite a bit of rave about the Rimmel Moisture Renew lippies but too be honest I'm really on the fence about all the hype surrounding them! I love the colour I purchased, it is literally everything I look for in a nude lipstick i.e. my lip colour but better, however the whole moisturing nature of it...I'm not completely bowled over by? I'm not sure why but it feels quite drying on my lips and I don't think it does anything in terms of nourishing my lips like it claims. I definitely think the MAC Cremesheen formula is a lot less drying and more glossy to apply, although this is a great alternative if your on a budget. There are loads of gorgeous colours, some of which I swatched on the back of my hand and they were all amazingly pigmented, which is the main thing I seek out when purchasing lipsticks. Overall, I'd definitely recommend giving these a try if your on a budget.

Notting Hill Nude

 Here are some more swatches of all three products swatched together.

Swatch taken in natural daylight.

Swatch taken with flash.

 I sincerely hope I've helped anyone considering purchasing these products. As always, I'd love to hear any comments on what I've spoke about and likewise, listen to what you've been buying and enjoying using!
 

Rediscovering Some Long Lost Treasures...

So you may of heard of the phrase "shopping my stash" which is where you dig out any, unloved make-up in a bid to save yourself from spending all that hard earned money on more make-up, simples! I had a quick look through one of my, erm... many make-up storage places (really need to sort this out...) and found a few hidden treasures that I've loved in the past but don't regularly use these days.

 ELF Studio Blush
Candid Coral

This is such a wearable, rosey peach toned blusher. I've been enjoying getting back into make-up again and love incorporating this into a simple daytime look.

ELF Studio Blush
Pink Passion

I was pretty worried about how vibrant this would look when applied but it's actually very buildable and can look really subtle if you have a light hand applying it. I dab a swirl of this onto the apples of my cheeks with a small blusher brush and buff out with my ELF Studio Powder Brush.

 MAC Studio Fix Fluid
NC25

I think this is probably my favourite foundation, although, Double Wear is slowly creeping up the ranks. I've literally been using the absolute dregs of this because it is the closest match to my skin colour, it creates a flawless finish and is so, so easy to blend. It's not as long lasting as my Revlon and Estee Lauder foundations and it can break me out if I don't cleanse my face properly....so, it's not without its flaws but what foundation is?

  
Rimmel Colour Show Off Lipstick
020 Shake Up Pink  

With all the snowy weather goings on, I decided to go for a bright lip for a change. I don't think my camera reflects the brightness of this lipstick as it's actually more of a vivid pink shade. This is quite creamy textured when you apply it but leaves a semi-matte finish, it's highly pigmented and doesn't dry out my lips too much, I've noticed it has quite a strong smell to it which is unexpectedly nice...almost like a sweet, fruity smell. I'm always really impressed with Rimmel lip products; the lip glosses I've owned don't leave a sticky feeling, there's an array of beautiful colours to suit all skin tones and they're not expensive to own (collect), winning.

  FOTD
Face: MAC Studio Fix Fluid Foundation in NC25
Mac Studio Finish Concealer in NC20
Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer in Medium
ELF High Definition Powder
 ELF Studio Blush in Pink Passion 

Eyes: HD Brows Eye & Brow Palette in Foxy
Maybelline the Colossal Volum Express in 100% Black
Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Liner in Black 

Lips: Rimmel Show Off Colour Lipstick in 020 Shake Up Pink 


Have you been shopping your stash?
 

Beating the January Blues

January is renowned to be the most depressing month in the year so I took preventative measures and made a few little purchases to cheer myself up (just in case), plus I had saved a Debenhams giftcard from my birthday so that came in useful finally!

Clarins Daily Energizer Cleansing Gel 

 This was a bit of an impulse purchase and I hadn't done much research into this, as I would normally with skincare products. My skin type is quite high maintenance so I have to be really careful with what I use on it otherwise it can become really dehydrated and breakout prone. As my skin is looking very pale and dull maybe due to all the rainy, the name gave me the impression it would give my skin a bit of a glowy boost. Whilst it didn't exactly make my skin beam and appear magically radiant, it is a fantastic cleanser nonetheless. A small amount foams up nicely and it feels like it's cleansing my skin thoroughly but gently, the smell is also rather nice. If I'm honest though, I doubt I will repurchase basically because I already have a better cleanser for my skin type than this and I do tend to dabble with different face washes unless I'm completely wowed.

Available from Debenhams. Price: £11.00.

MAC Shy Girl Lipstick

Before I start raving on, this photo does not do it justice at all! I'm not sure why but it photographs sooooo dark, could be the crappy light though. This is without a doubt, one of my favourite lipsticks to date. Just a perfect everyday, peachy nude colour and as always, the cremesheen formula doesn't let me down. It glides on so smoothly and doesn't dry out the lips at all. I get serious anxiety if I'm wearing anything darker than a light pink or peachy colour so I love the fact I can literally throw this on and not feel like I'm wearing it.

Also available from Debenhams. Price: £14.00

I'm sure I'm not alone in stating that I wish I had so many more MAC lipstick shades! At £14.00 a pop though, they are not exactly purse friendly. I would love to try out some more budget and drugstore lipsticks as I haven't really tried out many at all and the ones I have tried are either really drying or I just haven't ended up liking the colour. 

As always, I'd love to hear from you so drop me a comment in the box below, thanks for visiting!

Do you have a favourite brand for lipsticks?

MAC Lipstick Cherry Popped!!

Just thought I would do a quick review of these MAC Cremesheen lipsticks I purchased a few weeks ago. If you've read my blog before you may be aware that I have only just started to dabble with lipstick hence why these are in fact my first ever MAC lipsticks :-) After googling tons of lipstick swatches, I plumped for a blueish pink shade called Creme Cup and a rosier, yellow toned pink called Fanfare.

Left-Right: Creme Cup and Fanfare.

L-R: Creme Cup and Fanfare swatches in daylight

L-R: Creme Cup and Fanfare swatches with flash.

 As you've probably gathered from the swatches and the name of the finish these are really creamy textured and leave a nice sheen on the lips which is great for people who are stuck on lipglosses like me.

Creme Cup in daylight.

Creme Cup with flash.

I love this shade purely because I'd been looking for a subtle blue toned pink but everything I'd tried seemed to be overly blue toned which doesn't look great against my skin tone. It's really buildable aswell so you can wear it as bold or subtle as you want.

Fanfare in daylight.

Fanfare with flash.

 One application of this is fairly close to my natural lip colour but again, it is very buildable. I do like this colour but I haven't quite got used to wearing it in the daytime yet...I just feel like my lips are standing out too much which I guess is to be expected when I normally only wear lipbalm or gloss!

Hope you've enjoyed this post, feel free to comment :-) I'd love to know what everyones favourite MAC lipstick or other branded lipstick is seeing as I'm such a lippie virgin!

ELF Love & Hate

Hey guys, hope your all okay? And anyone from the UK...I hope the riots haven't affected you too much :-( Sad times for our country but hopefully things are starting to settle down now...


Anyways as I mentioned in my last post, I purchased quite a large amount of E.L.F. products the other week and since I've pretty much tested everything now I thought I'd share my thoughts with you on what I got and what I loved or hated. So below is everything I bought...please don't think I'm showing off or even that I'm made of money, I tend to purchase things more when there on sale or a promotion and at the time E.L.F. were offering 50% off there entire product range! How could I resist really when it's already so cheap?!

A lot of ELF products I've bought in the past are very hit and miss so..starting off with the brushes I have to say, overall I wasn't really impressed with what I picked up...

Brushes

• Studio Stipple Brush - this was a repurchase for me as I'd kinda ruined the one I had through being too vigorous trying to clean my Revlon Colorstay foundation off it :-\ I don't know why but its just not the same as the first one I bought?! The consistency of the bristles seems much finer and less dense than the one I already had therefore I don't think I'd get as full coverage using it to apply liquid foundation. When I tried to apply powder blusher with it, it was far too messy and not that much product ended up on the bristles.
• Total Face Brush - I found this brush to be okay, not as soft as I thought it might be but it's got a huge surface area which is great for applying a dusting of powder.
• Foundation Brush - Again I found this to be just okay, I bought this to apply primer with but I think my fingers do the job just as well. I've actually found its better for applying concealer but as I'm pretty much always in a rush I prefer to use my fingers to apply concealer.
• Blushing, Bronzing And Blending Brush - I was pretty disappointed with this to be honest, don't get me wrong it does the job but before I'd even taken this out of the plastic wallet I noticed it had already shed some bristles :-\ So yeah...it already felt very fine in terms of bristle consistency. God knows what I'd have left once I'd had to finally wash it!
• Blending Eye Brush - Not sure why but I was expecting this to be more fluffy like the Sigma E35, looking on the ELF website now I don't really know why I was expecting this! For the price however this is a good brush for blending any harsh lines in the eye crease.
• Eyeshadow Brush -Again, not sure why but I was expecting this to be more fluffy i.e. bristles a bit softer and longer in length so I was slightly disappointed at first. However I have found that it is a really good brush for applying and blending eyeshadow in the crease and the bristles feel nice and soft.

Waffle over on the brushes front! 



Studio Blushes

Left to right: Pink Passion and Candid Coral.

 These are my first ELF blushes and I picked up the shades Pink Passion and Candid Coral. Below are swatches of both colours and for your reference I'm an NC25 in MAC so this may show up differently on paler or cooler skin tones.

Swatches left to right are Candid Coral and Pink Passion, sorry there not in the same order as the first picture!

Swatches taken in natural daylight.

Swatches taken with flash.

Personally, I love this colour and its not half as scary as the photo looks! Whilst the pigmentation is really good it's also very buildable, so really its up to you how bright or subtle you want this to look.

Firstly, sorry for how messy this looks already but I have been using this quite a bit over the past few days. I was expecting this to be a lot lighter in shade than it is but having used it now a few times I have really warmed to it. It's not as coral coloured as I'd wanted but on the other hand, I do really like the subtle rosy glow this adds to my cheeks.



 Studio Matte Lip Colours 

As soon as I saw these beauts, I was quite keen to get my hands on them and give them a try so I purchased the shades Natural and Coral.

Top to bottom: Natural and Coral

Now these actually appear a bit darker than what they do on the ELF website but I think that goes for a lot of their products if I'm honest! Despite this, I was pleasantly surprised at the pigmentation of these however they are quite creamy in texture rather than being completely matte.

Swatch of Natural taken in natural daylight.

Swatch of Natural taken with flash.

Natural turned out to be quite a rosy pink tone but I really like it, it's something I could wear everyday without feeling too out there.

Swatch of Coral taken in natural daylight.

Swatch of Coral taken with flash.

I don't think my pictures do it justice but this is a gorgeous colour! I've been reaching for it quite a lot over the past week but I'd say it's more of an orangey apricot toned coral rather than a pink toned coral.


Mineral Lipsticks
I've never been a big lipstick wearer but over the past few months I have started to build up a small collection of mainly drug store lipsticks so I purchased two lipsticks from the mineral range. I didn't want anything too out there in terms of vibrancy so I went with Nicely Nude and Natural Nymph.

Left to right: Nicely Nude and Natural Nymph

I'd recommend these lipsticks if your a bit of a lipstick virgin like myself as they are so cheap and relatively good quality. The texture is quite creamy, not too drying and pigmentation is good.

Swatch of Nicely Nude in natural daylight.

Swatch of Nicely Nude taken with flash.

 The ELF website states that Nicely Nude is a sheer warm pink with a hint of gold shimmer which I think is pretty accurate, having said that I wouldn't buy this shade again as its too close to my natural lip colour and that's not really the look I was going for!

Swatch of Natural Nymph taken in natural daylight.

Swatch of Natural Nymph taken with flash.

I tend to research nude lipsticks thoroughly before purchasing because they generally make me look dead or rather ill :\ After trying this, I'm kind of coming to the conclusion that until I get a tan I will never suit nude shades!  Having said that, it has come in handy on days when my lips look pinker/darker than normal. I'd say it's very comparable in colour to the Gosh Darling lipstick but minus the sheen as it does give quite a matte finish.

Swatches of all lip colours, L-R: Coral, Natural, Nicely Nude and Natural Nymph.

Swatches taken in natural daylight.

Swatches taken with flash.

Nail Polish

Considering these cost only £1.50 normally, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed. The formula is really good and it only took me two coats to achieve a nice even finish. My favourite of the three shades I picked up has to be Mango Madness which is quite a bright orange toned coral.

L-R: Mango Madness, Smoky Brown and Mint Cream.

Eyebrow Kit
 

Swatches taken with flash.

Swatches taken in daylight.

This is my first eyebrow kit and too be completely honest I have a sad feeling it will end up being slightly neglected :-( I have my eyebrows threaded so the shape is quite defined most of the time, I usually just have to pencil in any faint areas with my Rimmel eyebrow pencil so for me this just seems like a lot of effort. At some point I will try and incorporate this into a made up eye and show you the results...I just don't think its fair of me to review something I haven't really used yet.

...nearly there!

Face Products

• Eyelid Primer - Basically an okay product for me. It does the job I suppose in terms of keeping eyeshadow from creasing but I don't know if that's just because of this product or because I'm using a good eye cream that doubles up as a primer on its own.

• Studio Makeup Mist & Set - So glad I bought this!! This is my first make-up setting spray so I'm afraid I couldn't compare this to the infamous MAC Fix+ I was really impressed with how this set my make-up and made it seem like I had more of a natural glow than the reality of my face being caked in foundation. For £3.50 its definitely worth trying out if your a fixing spray virgin like me.

• Oil Blotting Sheets - So far I'm really disappointed with these!! To be blunt they don't blot oil, I don't know if I was oilier than normal but when I tried these out my face looked just as bad after despite the sheet seemingly being covered in oil. The Professional Shine Eraser sheets that are also by ELF work much better so I'm not sure how they've got these so wrong.

• High Definition Powder - This feels nice and lightweight over foundation, it works well at eliminating shine and creating a matte finish. I just wish it wasn't so messy! I really don't trust carrying this around in my bag as it seems to get everywhere so unfortunately I've only been using it to set make-up before going out anywhere.

• Mineral Infused Face Primer - I'd had doubts about purchasing this as I'd read a few things about it being an oily skinned girls worst nightmare but so far I've loved this! A little definitely goes a long way as it has quite a slippery texture which makes your skin feel super smooth, I've found that it mattifies shine rather well also. Probably not the best primer for keeping oil at bay all day but definitely worth a try for £6.00 or even cheaper if you manage to grab it during a promotion period.

So that completes a rather massive review post! I really hope this helps anyone considering purchasing anything I've reviewed.

What would you recommend from the ELF range?