My Top 5: Foundations

Finally I think I've got them, my top 5 favourite foundations.I've tried and tested a lot of foundations the past year or so, but I finally think I've narrowed down the ones that I love and the ones I don't really love as much.

NARS SHEER GLOW
Selfridges | £30.50
I've mentioned this quite a lot because it's been very well loved since I bought it in October. It literally is perfect. The name, I do have to say is very misleading. It does have a certain glow to it, however generally it is rather matte (I suppose a satin finish rather than saying matte?). It literally looks beautiful on the skin though.

RIMMEL MATCH PERFECTION FOUNDATION
Boots.com | £6.99
This foundation, for the price, is amazing. This is make my skin look so flawless and radiant. It's a decent coverage and needs a light powdering to keep it to stay put all day long (I love using the matching powder).

MAX FACTOR FACEFINITY ALL DAY FLAWLESS 3-in-1 FOUNDATION
Boots.com | £11.99
I hated this so much when I first got it, literally it was the worst thing in my eyes. After a break from using it, I tried it again and fell in love. It's a medium coverage and is so long lasting.

BOURJOIS HEALTHY MIX FOUNDATION
Boots.com | £9.99
The apparent Chanel Vitalumiere (or possibly Pro Lumiere) dupe, I had high hopes of this, however thought it would be a lot lighter coverage than it is. Don't get me wrong, it's not full on heavy full coverage, but it covers everything it needs to whilst feeling like there's nothing on the skin. Most possibly my favourite of them all. For the time being.

MAC FACE AND BODY FOUNDATION
Maccosmetics.co.uk | £21.50
The makeup artist favourite. With its ability to go from a tinted moisturiser coverage up to full coverage, Face and Body is the perfect day to night foundation due its amazing buildabilty. It makes the skin look great because it perfects imperfections but still lets the skin show through so it's not masking it away. I didn't think I'd love this as much as I do at all but it's absolutely amazing.

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March Favourites

Before my last favourites post in January (HERE), it'd been months since I'd done a favourites post before. I didn't do one last month due to the fact that I hadn't really gained anymore new favourites, however this month I have and there's rather a lot of them if i'm honest.

Givenchy Le Rouge Lipsticks (Debenhams, £25 each) - My dad recently went on holiday and brought me back these lipsticks from duty free. Oh my gosh. They're just gorgeous. I've got the shades Rose Boudoir, Beige Plume and Rose Taffetas. I've not really worn Rose Boudoir much, i've actually probably worn Beige Plume the most because it goes literally with anything! All three colours are colours that I probably wouldn't usually go for but I love them anyway.


Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge (Boots, £5.99) - If I was paid for the amount of times I've mentioned this brand on this blog, i would be ever so rich. Since buying the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush, I've not touched a sponge for foundation application once. I really like this. It works best with my Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation, and I love it for concealer because I can really push it into the skin, making every use of the coverage of the concealer, plus no brush marks!


Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation (Boots £9.99) - Before buying this I'd heard so much about this foundation; it's apparently a dupe of Chanel Vitalumiere, or Pro Lumiere? Which are typically quite sheer foundations, so I wasn't really too sure what I'd think of it. Well, honestly, I didn't think I'd like it at all. I'm more a fan of a fuller coverage rather than a 'barely there' sheer kind of coverage. But this is the exception. Don't get me wrong, it's not a full coverage by any means, but it covers what it needs to cover but still looks, and feels, so light on the skin. You know, I think this may even have overtaken my Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation in terms of my favourite foundation.


Clinique SuperPrimer (Boots, £20) - Clinique is a brand that I'm definitely coming to love. The first thing I tried was their cleansing balm, and since then I've tried quite a few things and I've loved everything. This range of primers have been out for a while now and I've been meaning to buy one and I'm so glad I did. Some primers, I've found, can sit too much on your skin and then after you've applied your foundation and powder you feel like your makeup is about three inches thick on your face because your primer is so heavy (and yes, this has happened with me!), but this just feels like a moisturiser, yet creates a great canvas for my makeup to grip on to, plus keeps it there all day long.

Garnier Micellar Water (Boots, £4.99) - I wrote about how I loved the L'Oreal Micellar Water for makeup removal in THIS post, but since running out of that (and trust me, it runs out fast) I picked up this Garnier equivalent. Firstly, for the Garnier one you're getting twice as much as the L'Oreal for the same price. It's no better or anything, but this lasts way longer because the dispenser is a lot smaller so you loose less. I'm a massive fan of these quick-fix makeup removers. Sometimes cleanser and water is too much.


Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer (Boots £4.19) - Okay, this is generally a favourite every month, I know, but I've loved this more than normal this month. I've been using the shade 02 on blemishes, around my nose and under my eyes, and then the shade 01 in the inner corners of my eyes and under my brow to really sharpen it  for when my brow powder is applied. This literally is the best concealer ever and it's so great because of how cheap it is!



Rimmel ScandalEyes Rockin' Curves Mascara (Boots, £6.99) - As you well may know I'm a big fan of the Maybelline Volume Express Mascaras (The Rocket especially!) but I decided to branch out and try Rimmel's new mascara. I really really like it and it may in fact have taken over The Rocket as my new mascara. We shall see.


MAC Painterly Paint Pot (Maccosmetics.co.uk, £15) -  As a lover of both cream eyeshadows and MAC, it was inevitable that I would love this. I've literally been using this non-stop as a primer for my eyeshadow since i've had it. This keeps your eyeshadow on all day long (I swear it does not budge!). It's actually also really great to wear alone with just some winged liner and mascara. I'll definitely be buying more of these soon!

 L'Oreal Elvive Colour Protect Shampoo and Conditioner (Boots, £3.99 each for 400ml) - A HAIR CARE PRODUCT - what a rarity. This shampoo and conditioner, despite how cheap it is, it literally has been a miracle worker for my hair! Plus it smells divine.


The Body Shop Indian Night Jasmine Perfume (The Body Shop, £15 for 50ml) - My friend Alice wears this perfume and the first day I saw that it was this that she was using, I needed to buy it too! I'm not even going to attempt to describe its scent because I just cannot describe fragrances to save my life, but I absolutely love this and I think it's the perfect daytime fragrance.


Alrightyyyyy. There's rather a lot there I know, but I've loved a lot this month and I just wanted to share it all with you!

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The Spring Edit

Spring is officially here! And though the weather is ever so on and off and the moment, I'm still going to give a little round up of some great spring-time products.

When I think of spring makeup, I always think of rather neutral on the eyes, so I've included the Bourjois Colour Edition 24 eyeshadow; now i'm not too sure of the shade, mainly because I don't actually think it has it on there, but it's a light shimmery pink shade. I love cream eyeshadows. It's no mystery to you that I do, and though this one is a cream-to-powder formulation, I still love it because it requires the smallest amount of effort to apply, plus it multitasks as a base too. I also really like the L'Oreal Colour Appeal Solo Eyeshadow in the shade 152 Platinum Beige. You know those days where you can't be bothered doing anything special with eyeshadow but you still want a bit of something? This is perfect for that.

A softer alternative to black eyeliner is using brown instead; I really like the Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Liner in Sable Brown. Gives a certain definition to the lash line without the harshness of black. I also really like the Rimmel ScandalEyes Liner in Nude on the lower waterline to really brighten the eye up (rather than using white which can look so harsh and over-powering, especially on darker skin tones).

There's two big lip colours in at the moment, the infamous Radiant Orchid, a la Pantone, and orange, the standard that comes back around each year. I picked up two gorgeous orchid lip shades last week, first one is the new (ish) release of the Revlon Colour Burst Lip Lacquer Balms (shade 'Whimsical') - they're a new formula of the chubby-stick-dupes of the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain, but these new ones have a slight amount of shimmer to them (there's also a line of matte formulations too). I also really like the Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Wild Orchid, which I do believe seems to be a dupe of MAC Show Orchid which I think is discontinued.

Keeping to the theme of lips, orange is huge in again this year, and I think the standard orange lipstick that springs to mind for a lot of people is Morange lipstick by MAC; I've not worn this much yet but I can't wait to get a lot of use out of this when the sun is out! A great dupe of MAC Morange that I picked up a few weeks ago is Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick in In Love With Ginger. It's slightly more red than Morange however still is the fantastic on-trend bright shade for this season!

Onto skin... One of the big trends for this season is 'no makeup-makeup' - it's been seen at loads of catwalks for the SS14 season, and to achieve this look I really like the Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation, because it covers everything that it needs to be covered but still lets the skin show through and gives a radiant, bare-skinned look. I also really like MAC Face and Body Foundation for the same reason - also, Face and Body is so great in terms of its buildability; using one layer gives a really light finish but you can build it up to almost a full coverage (plus it's a perfect day to night foundation too). If you're wanting something lighter than a foundation, I love the Maybelline Dream Pure BB Cream. Again, this covers everything it needs to, but is so light on the skin (literally just feels like you're wearing moisturiser).

A beautiful blush for spring is the Topshop Blush in Head Over Heels, which is a cream formula blush which doesn't necessarily set, but also doesn't stay shiny and sticky either - it's honestly the perfect in-between. (They do however describe it as cream to powder however it doesn't set a lot in my opinion, if that makes any sense).

And finally for nails. I've selected the stereotypical spring hue of mint in the form of Barry M Nail Paint in Blue Moon. This does need a good three coats, however it's such a gorgeous pastley springy colour and i love it. Matte finish for nails has been all the rage for probably about a year now. I really like Barry M's Matte Nail Paint in Vanilla - this is not too far from my skin tone, which is why I really like it for spring because it's toned down and very neutral. The matte finish makes it even more understated but still looks very chic and classic. I've also included two of the Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paints, in some nice pastel shades, Light Blue and Lychee. 

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What products do you like for spring?

Illamasqua Skin Trio + Topshop Wicked | FOTN

I went to the theatre last night to see ‘Wicked’ in Manchester, and I thought that I would just do a little “face of the night” post telling you what I wore on my face and so letting you know some of my favourite products at the moment, as so to speak.

I started off by applying the Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion + all over my face (I mentioned it in THIS haul post). I've been using this mainly as a nighttime moisturiser, however I've used it when my skin feels like it needs a little bit more moisture!

I then used my favourite skin trio of the moment, starting with the Illamasqua Hydra Veil primer - I am absolutely loving this as I have very  dehydrated skin, and this gives my skin a real boost whilst providing a great base for my makeup. Sticking with Illamasqua, I used their Skin Base Foundation in the shade 4. This applies perfectly over the Hydra Veil, using a Real Techniques Expert Face Brush. To get rid of my terrible dark circles, I used my Bourjois Healthy Mix Concealer and applied this under my eyes and across my eyelids, and also on the redness around my nose and any little blemishes.

MAC Eyeshadows; Clockwise - Omega, Brule, Handwritten, Era

At this point I then move onto my eyes, and I started off with doing my eyebrows, using Omega eyeshadow (top left) from MAC on a small angled brush.  

Using a MAC 217, I applied the shade Brule (top right), a matte skin colour shade also by MAC, all over the lid, just to set the foundation and concealer across my lids. 

I then applied MAC eyeshadow in Era (bottom left) all across the lid, again with my 217, and then I used my Real Techniques Duo Fibre Eye Brush to apply MAC Handwritten (bottom right), a gorgeous matte chocolate brown, through the crease. I also took this on a small angled brush on the lower lash line. 

I lined my top lashline with the Illamasqua Precision Gel Liner and my top waterline with the Bourjois Queen Attitude Khol Kajal Liner, finishing off the eyes with a few coats of my favourite mascara ever, the Maybelline The Rocket Mascara.

Moving back to the skin, I powdered through the centre of the face with the last of the Illamasqua face trio, the Illamasqua Powder Foundation (I think I’m using shade 135? - it’s a tad too light for me though). 

I am a huge huge fan of contouring, and recently I have been loving using my Benefit Hoola bronzer and the Real Techniques Contour Brush. 

The final touch for the face was using the gorgeous MAC Mineralize Skin Finish in Soft And Gentle on the tops of my cheekbones.

Bringing the whole look together, I finished it off by using Topshop’s Lipstick in Wicked, a lovely burgundy shade.

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