NYX Haul, Soft Matte Lip Cream, Liquid Suede and Colour Correcting Concealer

I finally went to a Boots that stocked NYX and I must admit I went a little mad and bought a few things I really didn't need!

First off I bought one of the Liquid Suede cream lipsticks in Tea and Cookies, it feels like a slightly more moussey liquid lipstick that stays slightly tacky on the lips. The colour is a very pretty slightly nude toned pink. The lipstick cost £6.50

I also bought three Soft Matte Lip Creams  from left to right below in, Prauge, Monte Carlo and San Paulo, again they have a slightly moussey texture and dry completely matte- however like the liquid suede lipstick stays slightly tacky on the lips and doesn't dry your lips out like liquid lipsticks such as Kat Von D. However the lasting power on these lipsticks is not as long with some transfer to drinks etc. These lip creams cost £5.50

Lastly I got the Colour Correcting Concealer, 6 cream shades, I have never really tried colour correcting before so I am excited to give this a whirl. This item was £10.00

Lancome Juicy Shaker Wonder Melon Swatch

Due to my love of the first Lancome Juicy Shaker in Vanilla Pop, I bought another one of the lovely little bottles today in Wonder Melon. The colour is bright and fun, sheer with a slight pink stain tot he lips and it smells like watermelon! What more could you want!

Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Foundation, Concealer and Lipsticks; Beach Bum, Happy and Bikini

I had heard so much about the Tarte Rainforest of the Sea collection from various American makeup gurus that in the end my resolve to not order these products completely crumbled.

Unfortunately I live in the UK where you cannot get hold of Tarte so I ordered these products from Sephora and they have arrived 4 working days later! I am so beyond impressed with their shipping!

On to the products- The packaging, oh my! So lovely I honestly think this is some of the best packaging of any makeup I have bought! 

The lipsticks are gorgeous they look matte on the lips but they are creamy to apply and feel good to wear, the colour Happy is especially beautiful. The shape of the lipstick bullet is also really nice, a great shape that seems to make putting the lipstick on very easy!

The foundation I want to give more of a try before I fully critique it, its a watery foundation which seems quite light but I really need to test it fully.

The concealer is a good colour for my very light skin, the applicator is quite strange very large and stiff but I think it will work just fine.

first impressions of the products is A+ I look forward to really putting them to the test and will update at a later date!

In order from left to right Beach Bum, Happy and Bikini

Happy, Bikini, Beach Bum

Spectrum Collections Marbellous 12 Piece Set and Bag

As soon as I saw the promo pictures of Spectrum's new brush set I new straight away I had to have them. I had already bought their Glam Clam; of which I have a post about, which I adore. I knew they had great quality products and amazing customer service so I was sold.

I ordered these brushes the day they came out and due to a small glitch on the site I accidentally paid for 2 sets of postage and packaging, which as soon as I tweeted Spectrum about it was refunded to me! So big thumbs up again for their customer service.

The brushes and bag arrived a few days ago and I have been using them ever since. They are incredible soft synthetic brushes with a good variety of different densities and shapes which mean that you could quite happily have this as your only brush set to fulfill all your brush needs. They feel very well made and I have had no hairs come loose from the brushes as of yet.

The makeup bag is also stunning and I like it even more that I expected- the outer material is an easy to clean plasticy material and the inside is a silvery grey satin like material. I would have rather the inside lining been the same as the outside just for ease of cleaning but overall I really love it!

So far these brushes have been a dream to use, I have not cleaned any of them yet so I am still to see if I can get the white tipped brushes even close to white again after cleaning but hopefully this wont be too much of a problem!

Foundation Dupe L'oreal Infallible 24hr-Matte Vs Estee Lauder Double Wear

I am a massive Double wear fan and have been using it for just over a year now, I wear the lightest colour Shell and it really sinks into my skin well and masks a lot of my uneven skin tone and blemishes. The wear of the foundation is fantastic, with a few spritzes of a setting spray it will last me all day (even if I go out clubbing etc). I sometimes find that it can oxidise on my skin and become a bit pinky but apart from a few niggles it is pretty perfect. It is however £30 and has no pump which makes it a bit tricky to use!

Then I discovered the L'oreal Infallible 24hr-Matte foundation as I was testing out different products in superdrug. I bought the shade Porcelain and the colour is perfect, it also does not seem to oxidise and stays true to the original colour. The texture is sort of light and feels moussey when you buff it in. The coverage is really good and like the double wear it covers a lot of sins. The staying power however is not as good as the double wear even when worn with setting spray but as long as you can make a couple of touch ups during the day you should be fine! The price of the L'oreal foundation is £7.99 so any small faults in its lasting power I can forgive!

I can honestly say there is not that much difference between the two foundations, overall I do prefer to use the Estee Lauder product is feels nicer on the skin and its lasting power is amazing, however at the price of £7.99 the L'oreal foundation is a killer alternative. What I have taken to doing is mixing a little bit of both the products to make the ultimate foundation! This way I am making the expensive foundation last longer and the cheaper foundation stay on my skin longer, so win win!

Top L'oreal, bottom Estee Lauder

Benefit Operation: Pore-Proof!

I have just bought the benefit pore proof to try and help battle my huge pores. combination uneven skin. All the products are travel sized and I bought the set for £28.50. 

The set contains;

•  the POREfessional PRO balm
•  the POREfessional: agent zero shine
•  dr. Feelgood a velvety complexion balm
•  the POREfessional: license to blot
•  shy beam matte highlighter

How it recommends to apply the products;

• To apply the POREfessional: agent zero shine, tap powder into lid & dip brush.
• Sweep on moisturized skin or over makeup to mattify your complexion.
• Lightly stroke & blend our nude pink matte-radiance highlighter, shy beam, along cheek & brow bones or anywhere you want to enhance.
• Pat on our cult-favorite velvety complexion balm, dr. feelgood, with its accompanying sponge or dab on the POREfessional: license to blot instant oil blotting stick on face using short, swift strokes...alone or over makeup.

Well its quite a good set, good to trial out all the various different products unfortunately I have not found it really making that much difference to my makeup. I followed it's step by step guide from above and the following day did my usual makeup routine and I can honestly say that there was not noticable difference to my skin.

I do however think that on some skin types (ones with less problems than mine) will get on better with these products.

Lancome Juicy Shaker in Vanilla Pop

I just bought this Juicy Shaker from Lancome today at £18. I was told shake the products up and then to bounce it onto my lips using the sponge applicator. It feels lovely on the lips and very nourishing. The colour is light but very buildable and has given my lips dark pink glow.

I like this product a lot so far, but I shall see if it helps to soften up my lips like it claims it will before I buy anymore!

March Glossy Box Unboxing and Swatches

I think this months Glossy Box is fantastic! The products include a beautiful Luxie angled face brush worth £10.42 a travel sized bottle of Olay Regenerist and travel sized bottle of Hey Honey facial serum, a collection full sized highlighter worth £3.99 and finally travel sized -417 catharsis vitamin mineral shampoo and conditioner.

I am really happy with this box, I so love the makeup brush and can't wait to use the various creams and hair products! Glossy box have knocked it out of the park this month!

Pictures of the products below as well as a swatch of the highlighter.

Mario Badescu Drying Mask and Buffering Lotion

I bought these skin care products a couple of moths ago now after reading great reviews. I bought both of these products from Beauty Bay for £15.50 each.

The Drying mask supposedly promotes healing of acne eruptions, controls oily build up and clogging, soothes irritated and broken out skin. Well first off this mask absolutely STINKS oh my its horrendous! Apart from the smell I quite like the product, the texture is like cold wet mud and as it dries to goes very tight and made my skin quite itchy. You leave the mask on for about 20 mins and then rinse off pretty straight forward. This mask will dry your skin the hell out and so I tend to only use it if I am having bad acne break outs. It isn't a miracle cure but it does help to dry spots out. 

The buffering solution is a very watery product that you have to shake before use it states that it shrinks large, cystic pimples and reduces cystic acne quickly. I have had limited success with this product, again it will dry out spots somewhat but I can't really notice any major effect.

I did like using both of these products and I would try others from this brand- however I did not notice any drastic difference to my skin, but others may have more success as my acne is usually hormone related, so for those with acne due to oily skin may have a better results.

3ina Covent Garden Makeup Haul

I visited the new 3ina makeup store in Covent Garden this weekend and was excited to see and try some new makeup from a brand I had never heard of before!

The store looks amazing with  all the colours of different products laid out in a gradient spectrum, it made it very difficult to choose only a couple of products to try.

I picked up a minty green nail polish and a dark pink with a gold shift/glitter eyeshadow. Th eyeshadow is very pigmented when swatched with a finger but does not pick up as well with a brush. It feels very creamy and I love the colour. The shadow cost £6.95 which I didn't think was too bad, but I would have rather there had been less product and the price be lower as I don't think that I need such a large eyeshadow and if you had a lot of them they would be very cumbersome to travel with and store.

The nail polish is fantastic- it applied quite well, I did about 2-3 coats to get a good level of colour on the nail. So far after about 24 hrs I have had no chips to the polish which for me is pretty spectacular! The nail polish cost £4.95 which I think is brilliant and I will most definitely be buying more polish from this brand.

So far I really like what I have seen from this brand and I am excited to try out some of their other products -especially the lipstick!

Bicester Village Haul: Michael Kors and The White Company

Burberry Nude Radiance Fresh Glow Review Swatches

I was really Excited to use this Burberry 'luminous fluid base' as my skin can look a bit dull especially at this time on year. It is supposed to be used under your foundation or as a highlighter. I got the lightest shade that they offer and it looks great in the bottle (and that bottle ♥)

Below are pictures of one pump on the back of my hand, once rubbed in it has a slight shimmery look. When I used this on my face under my foundation however I could see no real difference at all! As a highlighter it was just not strong enough to really give any real effect so overall I must say I was pretty disappointed. So at the price of £34.00 I can safely say I will not be buying again (but it sure looks good on my battle station)

Sleek Solstice Highlighting Palette Swatches and Review

I have wanted this palette for a while mainly due to the fact that I love the gold packaging (sad I know) and I thought the colours would work well with pale skin.

I like all of the highlighters a lot, the top left had side shade is a cream and the other 3 are powders. I think my favourite shade in the bottom left hand side of the quad as the powder is more finely milled and gives a much subtler highlight.

I do love the packaging- however the lid does not open very far, the second picture below shows its hinge limit, this has made the palette a pain to use at times and you can't really use the mirror at all.

Overall I really like the quad and for the price of £10 I think it is really reasonable and a great alternative to higher end highlighters.

Ted Baker Hanging Gardens Mini Leather Purse

I am so in love with this purse! I got this a few weeks ago now and for £49 I am pretty happy!

I am not a fan of big purses as I often carry very small bags so this was a great size for me- thought it did not have quite enough card slots in my opinion. 

I was a little worried about how light the purse is, but so far due to the high quality of the material I have not had any marks or scratches yet and it still looks fresh and clean- we shall see if this continues a few month down the line!

Overall I adore this purse it is so pretty the perfect size for me, its great quality and I just love the lining.

Valentines Day Nails Pale Pink with Glitter Hearts

Cohorted Beauty Box Black Edition Products and Review

I received my Cohorted beauty box in the post today and was excited to see what I got! I was very disappointed with the box last month so I had hoped that this month would get me back on board! However once again just didn't hit the mark for me. Not only was I a bit bored by most of the products I also did not receive one of the items that is in the booklet- the Pixi Crayon, I instead received a Dove underam dark mark eraser which honestly I am pretty pissed about!

Now this is not the first time I have not been sent the same products as in the leaflet and in fact last month I did not even receive a leaflet explaining the products! For £30 a month I think Cohorted really need to get their act together!