Full Face coverage - Before and After

It's true, all foundations are not made equal, and it's even more true that you do get what you pay for. If I had to suggest one area to 'splurge' in your makeup bag over all the others- I would hands down say go in big on your foundation and loosen the purse strings a little. Eyeliners and blushes, lipsticks and mascara are very tricky to distinguish the £6 from the £16 or the £26! But the foundation is the foundation for your makeup, your face and your look. The foundation is out under the most pressure and has the toughest job to do, create a seamless, flawless natural looking canvas that can withstand it all. Cheap foundations, like the cheap foundation on a house, may look okay at first but the first sign of a grey cloud it crumbles and melts away.

I have dabbled back and fourth with all sorts of foundation and concealer combinations but often return to the Revlon Colorstay in the oily combination skin formula and the Mac Studio Sculpt concealer.
However, not wanting to miss out on anything better out there I am currently using:

Mac Studio Fix Fluid in NC15

Kryolan Dermacolor Wheel Rainbow Circle

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding, and this is the completely unedited, as-it-is, result that this little combination gives me!

The foundation I have gone back and fourth with, it's full coverage with a matte finish and I wear shade NC15 to even out my complexion, with the Kryolan colour wheel I use all of them, mostly a combination of the two palest colours for under my eyes and the rest I darken according to the contours of my face. The formula of the concealers are almost on the dry side as they are very thick, and feel like face paint. Although on the skin they do not look cakey like you might imagine face to paint to look, but it is the fullest coverage that I have ever gotten from a concealer and super resiliant to wear.

Sometimes straying from what you're used to is a good thing!

Revlon 24 hour Colourstay - does it really last for 24 hours? Photo results!

I recently purchased the Revlon 24 hour Colourstay foundation in the shade Buff which is second to lightest.

I of course bought the formulation for oily skin and went home with mid expectations about what it may be like, I wasn't expecting 24 hours but I was hoping for something close!
I wasn't dissapointed.
The foundations coverage is medium to heavy, I only need to apply one layer and at first I was using a flat foundation brush but ended up using a stippling brush which I think gives a much more even effect, no brushstrokes and a more flawless finish.
I put my foundation through it's paces, not to mention the fact that is slips and slides all over my face, I'm also a eye rubber, a sweater, a face toucher etc
I'm taken aback as it's really stood the test of time.

Here is how my foundation looked at 8.30am

This is how my skin looked at 11pm the same today (I'm in my pink pjs!)

 Here's a photographic comparison of my skin at 11pm with the foundation (right picture) and without the foundation once I had washed my face (left picture) So this is about fifteen hours of wear, that's not just sitting in one place all day it includes going to classes, going shopping and all that.

I think you can see why I'm persuaded, this has 100% replaced my MAC Studio Fix foundation, this lasts much longer and applies nicer, plus I think the colour shade is more accurate to my skin tone. You can see my blush and bronzer has all but worn off but my foundation is still sticking around!

This is my absolute new foundation favourite, I hope that it never gets discontinued! If it does I will stock up about six bottles of this!

Mid week pick-me-up

Sometimes the middle of the working week is a time for celebration (half way to the weekend!)
or a time for grumpyness (still got the other half of the week before the weekend...)

But never fear- a new video is here, and in this video the day looks much brighter and happier than my day today was!



For some reason I feel as though I look deathly pale in this video! I was using my Laura Mercier moisturising foundation that day, and perhaps it doesn't work so well on camera- at least I hope that's the case, wouldn't be great if I was walking around looking as though I have the flu that day!

Hope you have a great rest of the week- and if the thought of two more days in the working week is getting you down, just imagine that this weekend we're going shopping in the fanciest places in town- and we can all swan about the street with oodles of shopping bags on our arms (the posh ones made from card with cord handles) and then afterwards sip an over priced latte in a cafe as we rest our shopped out feet! Wouldn't it be nice!?

Highstreet store haul- Valentines goodies & makeup!

I love the makeup counters, they're the like the candy stores of my teen years just rows and rows of little clear pots and art supplies to dust and blend all over our face to transform us into anything we desire.

These are the fun things that I got today, the 4 empty containers were pans that I slotted into the pallette already, the brand is 'Fashionista' (I think the name is awful too) but the shadows are fantastic and only £4 each

The light mint colour is Green guild

The dark glittery green is Envy

The light pink is Glamour girl

The hot pink (my favourite) is Brave

I love them, I used them in my Valentines day makeup tutorial which I'll post here too once it's edited and up.

The pallette came free when you buy four eyeshadows in one go, and they sell them in black or cherry red, I preferrred the black because it matched the other colours of my makeup packaging

I then got Barry M black crackle nail polish, I've never tried it and if i like the quality I might get a candy pink and white one too, I got it kinda as a test run because I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it was around £3 or £4

The little pot below the nail polish is a Maybelline eyeshadow duo in shade Shiny Nude, they had a lot of colours, and this is the first marble eyeshadow I bought, this colour stuck out to me because the marble side comes out as a really pretty coral colour, it's really fun.

The pot of foundation from Boots is from Natural Collection which is the cheapest makeup brand that I have ever known! All of this foundation was £1.99! You best bet my eyes bulged out of my head when I saw that, I thought it might be good to use in videos if it's of a good quality since pretty much everyone can afford that.

Below that is Loreal Color Infaillable in shade 001 Time Resist White
I thought it might make an awesome highlight colour because it's so shimmery

BONUS GOODIES:
I saw some super stinkin' sweet valentines goodies for-me! We've got to show ourselves some love right?!
I got this two peas in a pod super duper cute fabric keyring, it's so soft though I can see it getting grubby pretty fast attached to my keys, the best part is it was £1.50 from Sainsbury's!
Then I got this beautiful polka dot fabric bunting, it's 1.5m of heart shaped adorability. My walls are white so I'm decided between putting it there or wrapping it around my bed, it was £3 or £3.50 I can't remember, also from Saisbury's

We all need to give our rooms a lil' love!

Here's the accompnaying video to my haul!:




Happy almost Valentines day!!!

Chapped Cheeks

I've been battling with my oily skin since I hit my early teens, I tried all sorts to change it including drying it out with the most vicious remedies possible before coming to the conclusion that I could throw any paste, formula or lotion at it and at the end of the day, I would still have oily skin.

It's like dying your hair, you can dye it a rainbow of colours, but it doesn't stop your hair from being the colour it truly is underneath all that dye.

However, this winter is the first time my skin has been dry for a prolonged period and it's right along the top of my cheekbones where I put my highlight colour when I'm doing my makeup.As a result I've had to give up powder foundation for a while and go back to my Laura Mercier tinted moisuriser but the chapping has eased a little since, I've also been going to bed with a streak of Bio Oil across the dry patches too.That's my simple but magic-make-shift remedy for chapped cheeks!