Review: Revlon Colourstay (Combination/Oily)

Revlon claims that this foundation will look fresh for up to 16hours and will feel as though you aren't wearing any foundation at all. I never regularly wear make-up for a long period of time as I apply it at 7:00am and don't take it off until around 10:30, so I definitely gave this a good text drive. I think it holds up very well and although it had worn away a little by 10:30 I still had a little coverage. It also claims to be medium to high coverage and is specially formulated to keep oiliness and shine at bay for the duration of wearing it. What I love about this product is that even when it has worn away it still give the skin an almost flawless look as shine is kept at bay without leaving the skin looking dull. The price is £11.99 (although it can often be found for much cheaper) for 30 ml of product.

I apply this product using a damp make-up sponge. I use it damp as the coverage of this foundation is very high. Also, the Colourstay foundation is notorious for being hard to work with and blend. However, even when I use this foundation without a wet sponge I still find it pretty easy to use. What I recommend is only getting a small amount of product and working with one area of the face at a time. Don't, like you would with other foundations, dot this around the face and then blend. This will not work as this foundation is very quick drying and so the dots will dry and you will look very strange as once this is dry you won't be able to blend it.

Overall, I think that this foundation is probably one of the best on the market. It is often compared to the MAC Studio Fix and although I have never tried this product I can definitely see why this foundation is always getting excellent things said about it. Revlon makes some of the best foundations from all drugstore brands it is a brand I would recommend to everyone.

Review: NYC Color Wheel Mosaic Face Powder in Pink Cheek Glow

NYC Color Wheel Mosaic claims to reduce shine and oil in the cheeks as well as giving the complexion a brightening effect. It definitely does stop any shine on the cheeks, therefore, I wouldn't recommend this during the winter when you may want more of that dewy effect. However, if like me you want a matte effect on your face on certain days and what not then this is the product for you.

Although it does give a matte effect it does have a bit of shimmer shot through it. This means that the face doesn't look as flat and I think this is the brightening effect that they talk about. As for pigmentation this product is quite pigmented depending upon where you put your brush. It is very easy to go overboard with, but if you use a brush that isn't densely packed with bristles this will lessen the chance of going overboard.

Overall, this is a great little blusher and I am going to get the bronzer and highlight as I think they are a steal at £3.99 as to be honest this probably last me forever.

Review: Telescopic Clean Definition by L'Oreal.

L'Oreal Telescopic Clean Definition claims to lengthen lashes by up to 50%. I can definitely vouch for that my lashes are amazingly long with this mascara. Also, it claims that the high precision flexible brush defines and separates lashes one by one helping to give a fanned out effect. To be honest I did find that some of my lashes clumped but this happened a lot less then with other mascaras. To be honest I have never really had a mascara that hasn't clumped my lashes.

I chose the L'Oreal Telescopic Clean Definition in Black and I bought mine from Boots for £9.99. The colour of this mascara is very dark. Therefore, if you find that some mascaras just aren't pigmented enough for you eyelashes this one is perfect. The brush is very long and thin the bristles oddly are very short. However, because they were short the mascara seemed to glide the lashes much easier. As the bristles are so thin the wand doesn't actually pick up a lot of the solution. However, this does make the mascara much easier to build up. I didn't curl my lashes before using this mascara as I always seem to forget and end up curling them after. This did seem to help keeping a curl in. Overall this is a very good mascara I will probably repurchase it. The only thing that would stop is that I have an obsession of always having to buy a different mascara every time one runs out so that I don't feel like I'm missing out.

Face of the week: Golden Goddess Cheeks

To be honest I never really used to bother with my cheeks as I have high redness in my cheeks as it is and I didn't really want to add to this. However, now i realise that if you use the right blush it can actually help to hide the redness and instead give a nice pinch of colour and lift the whole appearance of you face. The products I used on my cheeks for this look were the NYC color (American product, American spelling) wheel mosaic face powder in pink cheek glow, Revlon Colourstay Foundation in 150 Buff (mine is the one for oily-combination skin), MeMeMe Beat the Blues in Sun Glow, MeMeMe undereye bright and light concealer in 02 and lastly YBF Yellow Pressed Powder

Firstly, we need to use a good foundation for this make up look I used Revlon Colourstay and used a sponge applicator that I'd slightly wet to make the make-up slightly easier to apply and to lighten the heavy coverage a little. Next use the NYC colour wheel in Pink Cheek Glow on the apples of the cheeks and slightly bring it up to the hairline. To apply the blush I used the elegant touch fluffy brush as the hair is not densely packed so I don't have to worry about picking up too much product. Next we are going to use the Beat the Blues by MeMeMe. Dot the product above your cheekbone all the way from the hairline to the apple of the cheek. Blend this in well, this will give the dewy glow that we are going for. To set the products use the YBF yellow pressed powder, this will help to bring down some of the blush colour to give the cheeks more of a pinky pinched look. By using a pressed powder your make-up should last all day making this look perfect for when you need make-up all day and not just for a couple of hours.

Face of the week: Golden Goddess Eyes

The following are all of the products we are going to be using. These are all of the products I used on my face and eyes.

As for brushes we are going to be using two: of of these being a large fluffy brush (mine is from Elegant Touch) the other is the sponge applicator that comes with all eyeshadow. That's right no professional eyeshadow from MAC we are going to do all eyeshadow work like contouring with our fingers and sponge applicators. In this tutorial I am only going to be showing you how to do the eyes. In the next tutorial I will show you how to get the glowy cheek that I am wearing also.

Here is what I look like before and after the make-up. I have no make-up on in the photo on the above and you can the massive difference the make-up has made to my face.

First of all what you want is to apply a eyeshadow base. For a cheaper alternative to Urban Decay Primer Potion what I used is the No7 brighten eyeshadow primer. Or if you don't want to buy a separate eyeshadow base just use some concealer. Next what you want to do is apply a light gold colour (3rd from right top row) all over the lid don't go up to the eyebrow just keep the colour concentrated on the lid. All of the eyeshadow I used was from this Sleek Palette. Next apply a darkish brown colour (2nd from right on the bottom row). Apply this colour on the crease especially focusing on the outer corner. Then blend these colours together with your index finger. Don't blend so that the colour is washed away just enough to get rid of any harsh lines. Next apply a shimmery dark brown (1st on the left on the bottom row), just apply a very small amount of this, by doing this it will help to give your eye shape much more definition. Then as a highlight use the colour second from left on the top row. Use this just on the inside corner.

As we didn't use the gold as a colour wash all over the eyelid we need to use a very light highlight. What I used was the MeMeMe Beat the Blues in 01 Sun Dream. use this from the gold colour all the way up to the eyebrow. This will give you a beautiful shimmer effect when it catches the light. On my eyebrows I used the YBF eyebrow pencil from QVC I only wanted a little definition to lift the shape of my face. Finally apply lashings of mascara, I used the Telescopic Clean Definition by L'Oreal.

I only wanted this look to be quite light for day time and perfect for the upcoming hot weather. If you want to make it more suitable for nighttime use an eyeliner in the waterline and close to the upper lashes. A good pencil eyeliner is the Avon GlimmerSticks in Black.

Review: Neutrogena Wave

Please note that with all skincare products how they work on myself may differ to the kinds of results you get.

The Neutrogena Wave comes with 2 weeks worth of pads (I will only use this every other day so for me that will be a months worth). It also comes with a battery to power the little machine. I paid £4.99 for mine refills vary from £3.99 to around £5.00. On the back of the box it has full instructions on how to use the product.

I have always considered myself to have quite good skin. I never really suffer from breakouts and when I do they are normally gone within a week. During the winter my skin is very dry around my mouth and cheeks and oily on my t-zone. However, now that it is spring and it isn't quite as cold as it has been my skin has gone back to being combination-oily. I do have quite a strict skin care regime as there is nothing worse then getting a spot. However, even with all the different products I use I still notice that the surface of my skin especially my cheeks and neck is quite bumpy. You wouldn't really notice this to look at my skin but to touch there are bumps. Therefore, I was quite curious about the Neutrogena Wave. My way of thinking is that if it is vibrating on these bumps it might bring whatever bacteria is in the bumps to the surface.

I was in my local Superdrug and I finally decided to take the plunge. Before using I removed all my make-up with a wipe and I didn't want it to clean off my make-up I wanted it to clean my skin. The feeling on the skin is quite strange it feels as though it is giving the pores a good deep clean. Afterwards the bumps on my skin had reduced greatly. I'm not saying that they disappeared completely but they were definitely reduced. The surface of my skin now is very smooth. Also, it didn't promise to reduce the look of pores the ones on my cheeks have all but vanished making foundation application easy.

To use stick a pad onto the machine and then turn on the machine whilst holding it under a running tap. Then what I did was run it in rings all over my face, concentrating especially on oily areas such as the T-Zone, or problem areas such as where you get unevenness.

I would recommend this to anyone who suffers with spots. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone with dry on sensitive skin and I do have quite a sensitive patch of skin right next to my mouth and I could see this irritating it. I would say if you have no skin care regime you would love this product as it will leave your skin so smooth. If you do have a good skin care regime but were maybe suffering from the same problems as me I could also see you benefitting from this. The only thing I wish was different was the colour as I am not the biggest fan of pink, maybe a jade green lol.

Cheap Products Worth Trying

All of the products I am mentioning are things that I have bought recently and have enjoyed and can recommend. First of all I think that the Superdrug own brand face masks are amazing. They come in 4 different formulas and I have 2. I bought them on a buy one get one free and they retail at £1.99 each. Very cheap for the quality. The pink tube contains a Raspberry Exfoliating Mud Mask, the green tube contains an Aloe Vera Deep Cleansing Mud Mask. You leave the masks on for 10 minutes each and then wash off you will be left with glowing skin. I recommend to use these masks once a week. One week I will use the Aloe, the next I will use the Raspberry, or I will use whatever I think my skin needs the most. Personally, I prefer the Aloe Vera mask to the Raspberry as I like the fresh, clean smell that it has.

The other product I would like to mention is Carmex Lip Balm. It retails for £2.49 and the strangest thing pushed me to buy it. I get spots around the edge of my mouth, and this product contains salicylic acid which is a proved spot fighter. I was a little nervous as all spot products I have used were very drying and the whole point of a lip balm is to moisturise. I bought this product anyway and I have not regretted it. It's not dry at all. For the first time ever my lips are smooth and for me the best thing is that fact that it is in a tube. I hate pots such as Vaseline because I always end up with the product stuck under my somewhat long finger nails. Carmex is also great because lipgloss and lipstick can glide over the top, however, if you don't want to wear either put on a thick layer of Carmex and it will look like a high shine clear lipgloss.

Top 5 Nails Inc Colours

As I have a lot of Nails Inc products I thought it would be a fun idea to tell you which five I am always wearing and are my definite favourites. I just want to say that I feel it is important to wear a top and base coat with all of these nail varnishes as they are packed full of colour and may stain your nails. The top and base coat I recommend is definitely the Caviar top and base coat. The top coat is called 45 seconds and it dries my nails in about 30 seconds so if you hate how long your polish takes to dry then this is the product for you. Other colours I want to give a quick mention to are Jermyn Street (lovely taupe shot through with silver almost made the list) and Victoria Street (beautiful soft silver colour that won't make you feel as thought you are putting metal on your nails gorgeous everyday colour)

1. Aspen- its a pretty satin red colour that I just think is perfect at any time of the year if you want something for a formal occasion to me this is the little black dress of nail colour.

2. Hanover Street- great electric blue colour very close second to Aspen. Whenever I wear this colour people always comment. I think it would be great on the toes in flip flop season.

3. Victoria- the colour isn't given justice in the picture its a plummy black colour. Again lovely talking point. If your someone who loves dark just off black colours you will love how much depth this has.

4. Bond Street Lights- To be honest I don't know whether they still make this colour, but if manage to get your hands on it, it is the most beautiful shimmer I have ever come across. When I wore this (around Christmas time) everyone said my nails were like discoballs. Love, Love, Love this colour the reason it doesn't get higher is because it is sooo hard to remove I don't get this problem with other Nails Inc products but with this I do.

Brand Rave: Nails Inc

Nails Inc is by far my favourite nail company. I have yet to find a bad colour, they are a very innovative British brand and are constantly updating their colour selection. The RRP of these colours are £10 each, I know pretty steep but if you go into House of Fraser most of their stores will have a Nails Inc section they will often have a little selections of colours for a price lower than the RRP. For example, the first Nails Inc set I bought was from Nails Inc it included 6 colours and a top and base coat. All of this was for £30 this comes to just £3.75 a bottle which is just as cheap as a drugstore brand but much better quality. Also, the shopping channel QVC offers sets of Nails Inc varnishes for low prices.

Now to why I like Nails Inc. At school I am pretty much known for my nails I change them every other day and I take good care of my hands and nails through moisturising and nail oils. For me cheaper brands tend to chip much quicker and as soon as I see one chip I absolutely have to remove the polish from all my nails (I know its a bit obsessive). I have been Nails Inc now for just over a year. I have 23 (21 of these being colours) of their products and all of them are unusual colours. Not only are the colours special but so are the formulas, I can wear one of their colours for a week without one chip (although I don't do this often because I get bored of wearing a colour for more than 3 days). Also, the nail varnish dries so quick its amazing.

Overall if you are a newbie to painting your nails I would definitely recommend Nails Inc you will never go back I promise you!!!

My Haircare Routine

I have tried a lot of haircare routines as I find it very difficult to control my frizz prone hair. This is a picture of how my hair looks on a day to day basis. Since the photo was taken my hair has grown a little but it is still in the same style. The following are the products I use every other day as I don't shampoo every day.

Firstly I use the Tigi Bed Head Shampoo and Conditioner for Thick Massive Hair. Does it give me thick massive hair no but I love the feeling it gives my hair and my hair always seems to have a bit more bounce when I use these products. I have to admit these products are quite expensive but for me they work and I am willing to spend. I bought my shampoo and conditioner together for £20, they are 750ml each and to be honest this is no exaggeration but they will probably last me a year. I got them a bit cheaper than they should be because I got them from the Clothes Show which is an annual event near my home in Birmingham. If your hair dry I would definitely recommend the Aussie Miracle Moist Shampoo and Conditioner as I always use them when I feel as though my hair needs a little TLC.

After shampooing and conditioning I then use my Tresemme Heat Defence Styling Spray. This is quite a new addition to my haircare routine. I noticed that I'd been getting a lot of split ends recently which is something that I never get. For some reason I have never gotten along with Tresemme products they seem to make my hair either greasy or dry. However, whilst stay in over at a friends she shampooed my hair with the Tresemme Salon Silk and my hair didn't react to bad so after all of my friends recommended this heat defence I thought I would give it a go. To be honest the main reason I tried it was because it was on sale, but I'm glad I did I have not had any split ends since using this. I'm not saying to mends split ends I'm saying that if you get a lot of them get a trim and them use this as it can help prevent them.

I then use the John Frieda Straightening Potion. I have used this for about 3 years now, and I like it a lot. I didn't really appreciate until I stopped using it and my hair was so hard to straighten. I would recommend it for those how blow dry their hair straight as I think that this helps to smooth down flyaways.

My last product is the John Frieda Frizz Ease Serum. Again love this product, I can't use a lot of serums as they tend to weigh my hair down but I find this to be a wonder product. I'm not going to lie my hair is still a bit fluffy after blow drying but i don't have any frizzies after straightening and I think that this is down to this serum.

After this I blow dry my hair depending upon how straight I want my hair I use either a paddle brush or a large round brush. I use a small round brush to get my layers around my face. The hairdryer I use is the Tresemme Phillips Salon Smooth. I then section off my hair and straighten my hair with GHD's. I have used cheaper brands but for me nothing is like GHD. I only use them for straightening because although I have had mine for 3 years I still can't get the hang of curling with them.

Product Rave:Rimmel Stay Glossy

I bought my Rimmel Stay Glossy in 260 My Eternity. On my lips it comes out as quite a nice neutral pink, however, this may depend upon how pigmented your lips are. The price ranges from around £5-£6.50 for 5.5ml of product. On the package it claims to stay glossy for up to six hours, hence the name. The lipgloss does have a doefoot applicator (spongy thing) instead of a brush I know that a lot of people prefer to have a brush applicator but I don't really mind for a product of this quality.

I have tried a lot of lipglosses, to be honest most of them last 10 minutes if that. I have always been more of a lipstick kind of girl as I only really make my lips a focal point if I am going out. For school I normally just put on some Carmex Lip Balm.

Despite my reservations I did buy a Rimmel Stay Glossy lipgloss as I thought it would be great in the day over the top of my Carmex. This is honestly the best lipgloss I have ever tried. I don't know whether it quite lasts for six hours but I would definitely say that it lasts over 3 hours. I think that for a drugstore product this is very reasonable. As for drying out lips I don't think that it does but maybe this depends upon how well you look after your lips. I have used it without my Carmex under it and it doesn't slide off it sits nicely on top. I am very pleased with the lipgloss and I will be buying it in more colours.

Tag: Products I Regret Buying

As this is my first post I just wanted to begin with some fun posts that I have seen on YouTube. Please remember that these are just my own thoughts on products, if you have any questions about a product feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

The first product I regret buying is the Boots No7 quick cover concealer in 05 medium. There are a couple of reasons that I dislike this product the main being how much it cakes on my face. To be honest I don't really have too many blemishes but I do have two red splodges (for lack of a better word) on my face. I think they must be broken capillaries. I do admit that they are quite hard to cover but I quite like products that slightly cover them so I never really have very high hopes for concealer. No matter what I did with this it almost seemed to oxidise throughout the day so that I looked like I had orange spots, not a good look. Another reason I don't like this product is that it is waaaay too dark for me. I do have quite light skin that I find hard to match but the lady at the Boots counter recommended this as I apparently have yellow undertones hmm I must've misheard yellow for orange.

The second product I regret buying is the Avon MorphTones Range of Rose eyeshadow. I do not think that they stock this anymore, thankfully. There is one reason that I hate this product it creases like no-ones business. I had such high hopes for this eyeshadow as in the past I have had great experiences with cream shadows but not with this one. I didn't use it with an eyeshadow primer but I honestly have never had an eyeshadow crease on me before.

The third product I regret buying is the Avon Astonishing Lengths mascara (I do love a lot of Avon products but these just haven't performed for me). I found the solution to be very wet, I do like some wet mascaras as they are easy to build but this one almost clung to me lashes whilst not actually doing much for length, the only thing it did was smudge onto my undereye, leaving my friends wondering if I had done an all nighter (actually a few of them asked if I had slept in a month) obviously this wasn't the desired effect. Also, the mascara seemed to make my eyelashes break. I know this sounds odd but its the truth, I persevered with the product for two weeks and by the end of my trial my eyelashes were left in stumps.

The fourth product I regret buying is the Maybelline Kohl Express waterproof eyeliner. Main reason I didn't like this product was that it wasn't waterproof at all. On the couple of days I had wore it it smeared off throughout the day, it came into absolutely no contact with water. I'm not one to rub my eyes ever I've never really had the habit so I know I didn't rub it off. Overall, very disappointed I used to use a lot of Maybelline but of late I haven't I don't find their quality too good to be honest.


The fifth and last product (I hope) that I regret buying is the Barry M Sky Blue Lengthening mascara. A couple of my friends swear by using blue mascara to brighten up the whites of their eyes. I had used a navy colour a few times before but fancied trying Barry M for the first time (the bright colours had always scared me off). The sky bly colour doesn't transfer to my lashes at all. It just seems to leave a sticky gloop of blue-black mascara behind but even that isn't noticeable. It doesn't lengthen my lashes whatsoever, I did use a white primer from a Maybelline mascara waited for this to dry and then applied this mascara over the top. What was I left with? White eyelashes for some reason the colours of these mascaras just don't transfer. Conclusion nice idea, poorly executed.