Bourjois 123 Perfect Foundation Review

I am such a novice when it comes to face base, I never really knew what I was doing when I was younger, and throughout my late teens and early twenties I just used a tinted moisturiser. Then I swapped to BB Creams and although I'm still a fan of them, I was looking for a bit more coverage. So I purchased my first high end foundation - Jemma Kidd Light as Air (reviewed here). I liked it, but for £25 for a half empty tube I didn't think it was fantastic so won't repurchase it.

I have used Bourjois Healthy Mix before when I was younger and did like it, and I know it's raved over, but whilst perusing Bourjois on my recent drugstore visit, I decided to go for the newer 123 Perfect Foundation, with its promise of  'a rested yet radiant complexion and a flawless, even result for up to 16hrs', with 24 hour hydration and SPF10. (Bourjois website).

Unblended on right, lightly blended on left.

Pros:

• I picked shade No52 Vanilla and it blends perfectly with my skintone.
• It is easy to apply and blend, I use my Sigma stippling brush for the best affect.
• It did even out my skin tone as I have discolouration on my cheeks, and it covered my pores well.
• I didn't feel I needed a powder after this, and I have combination skin, but I always apply bronzer anyways. You could probably go without.
• It definitely was long lasting, although probably not 16 hours (I always use a primer anyways)
• Bourjois is cruelty free.

Cons:

• It's a liiiiittle runny but that doesn't bother me too much. 
• I'm not sure  it was effective at covering my dark undereye circles, I still could definitely not go out without my trusty Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer on top.

Here it is on my face with no other makeup (ugh):

So it's done ok with my discolouration and pores, still got a wrinkly forehead and dark circles tho!

 

On the whole, I like it and would recommend it. What do you think? Have you tried this foundation? Should I have stuck with Healthy Mix?

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥

Smile Enhancing Lipglosses

I recently bought two smile enhancing lipglosses, actually a coincidence, it's not something I usually look for in a lippie but hey ho.

The first was a random purchase in Watt Brothers whilst I was looking for toy soldiers (don't ask). They had a big Sally Hansen display and this lipgloss in shade 'Gleaming' was only like £2. Please note I purchased this BEFORE making the conscious decision to go cruelty free, I am aware Sally Hansen test on animals and won't be purchasing from them again.

Anyways, the product is fairly average. I always thought a blue tone was needed in lip products to make teeth appear whiter, a la Benefit's California Kissin'. However, this was too pale and pink and did not appear to make my teeth appear any whiter than normal.

The second product I bought just recently from Bourjois, and it's quite quirky. It's called Smile Enhancing Gloss in shade 05 Framboise Hollywood.  It's double sided, with one side as a lipgloss and the other as a teeth whitener. I'm not exactly sure how the teeth whitener is to be used, like if it's to be left to dry or not used within a certain time of eating, and I can find no instructions on it.

However, the concept is pretty fun, even if I do get a few funny looks when applying it in the pub toilets. I can feel the minty effect and I do feel like it temporarily brightens the teeth and besides, the lipgloss colour is divine!! Give this one a try I think.

It's actually a lot bolder in real life, quite a bright, deep pink.

And here's the swatches on my hand also:

Sally Hansen on left, Bourjois on right

Have you tried any of these products? Have you found any lip products that really do make your teeth appear whiter?

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥

Collection Goodies Review :)

Thank you all so much for your sweet 'welcome back' messages and also for the congratulations on my job! I'm super excited and lucky in this economy to get one, so thank you!! :)

Remember you can still enter my 'back to blogging giveaway' HERE to win a Naked2 Palette!

Obviously I have a lot of things to catch up on since my break, but first I want to share with you some bargain products that I'm actually pretty impressed with! I recently went into Boots and was distracted by Collection (2000)'s 3 for 2 offer on some of their new goodies.

Now I loved this because it's actually three products I genuinely wanted and needed! I've needed a new primer for a while, and I've been wanting to try gel liner for aaaaages and the finishing spray just seemed like a good idea as I wasn't too impressed by ELF's but I am not forking out for Urban Decay's.

Primer on my hand. :)

The primer has the exact consistancy you'd be looking for, soft and velvety, and goes on like a dream. A little goes a long way and I do feel like my makeup stays looking nicer for that little bit longer. It costs £5.99 when not on offer.

I'm a bit scared of gel liner, not got my application perfect yet, but it goes on smoothly and easily and is lovely and dark initially. The only problem with it is that even with primer, after a day's wear it fades a bit. However, it's been a good trial product for me! I really like it and it's only £4.99.

Lastly, the finishing spray makes my face feel wet for a few seconds obviously, but it dries quickly and I did notice that when combined with the primer my makeup stayed on all night on a night out. I wouldn't use this product for day to day wear, but it seems to be decent for a night out! It costs £5.99 when not on offer.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with these products, which with the offer cost me the grand total of £12 for all three - not bad! Have any of you tried these products? Or any other bargain Collection products I should know about (obv except the famous concealer!!)

Let me know!

ALSO I've been featured in Sarah from FashionismyH2O's recent 'Project Perfect' post, along with some other gorgeous bloggers. If you don't know what Project Perfect is, or you want to see more of me (haha) then go HERE.

~ Lauren ♥

My Eyebrow Saviour - Christian Brows

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with my eyebrows. For the first few days after I have them 'done' it's love, the other 90% of the time it's hate. They are blonde and shapeless and grow in far too quickly. UGH.

You can catch up on my exciting adventures with my eyebrows from these posts:

HERE to read about (and see a wee video of) the torture that is threading; and

HERE to read about my salon HD Brows experience with before/after pics.

But to summarise, my eyebrows, left untamed and undyed, look like this:

AAAARGH!

Once threaded, they look like this:

Not too bad.

Once HD-ified, they look like this:

That's better!!

The only problem is, the tint fades so quickly and my eyebrows grow in so fast that ideally I would have them re-done every two weeks, but I clearly can't afford that. So I invested in a 'brow tidying/shaping' kit.

Ta da - Christian Semi Permanent Eyebrows in 'Taupe' (comes in other shades)

It comes with instructions, your chosen shade of wax, a double ended brush for precision or shading, and three stencils for your eyebrow shape - thin, natural and thick.

The idea is that you position the stencil over your eyebrow and shade in with the wax, which enhances your natural shape and tidies it up. I got blonde because I use this kit. once the tint fades and my eyebrows start to become unruly.

My current eyebrows without using Christian Brows:

And after using it:

The left brow has been shaded in completely using the foam end of the brush , the right brow has had 'strokes' of wax applied using the angled end of the brush.

What do you think? I like that it makes my eyebrows look a little neater, especially when I just shade them in like the brow on the left, and helps me prolong HD Brow sessions! The kit is not cheap, I got mine for £18.50 at FeelUnique, but it's probably gonna last me about five years and the wax really stays put until you remove it with makeup remover - it even stays on in the shower!

Do any of you guys have any eyebrow tips for me to keep these bushes under control? Have you tried a different brow kit? And also, have any of you tried dying your eyebrows at home??

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥

New Favourite Mascara - Bargain!! :)

I am on a constant quest for the best mascara ever. I have quite long, naturally curly eyelashes but I only have about three of them haha. So I look for a thickening mascara, which obviously still adds a bit of length, too much tho and I look like I have spiders legs on my eyelids - not a good look.

I've tried all the 'favourites' - Lancome Hypnose, Dior Diorshow, Benefit BadGal - I liked them all but I didn't LOVE them. I currently use Urban Decay Super Curl which was a surprise hit for me as I got it as a wee trial size thrown in when I bought some other UD goodies. It gives me a nice, natural look for day-to-day wear.

Here are my natural eyelashes:

Top pics are without any makeup, bottom pics are with all other eye makeup.

So although I was pretty happy with my current mascara, I always crave a bit more!!

And More! Magazine provided this. :) I am part of the More! Beauty Hot 100, where we give suggestions/feedback to the magazine about products, are given the opportunity to contribute to the magazine, win goodie bags (like I won HERE!) and also test and review new products. They recently sent us 17 Peep Show to try and I was quite sceptical, as I tend to go for high end mascara.

How cute is the packaging??

I actually really like this mascara!! What do you think?

It goes on nice and evenly, with no clumping, even after a few coats. I wore it for a full day and had no smudging either. Although I was sent this mascara to trial, you can buy it in Boots or online for £6.29.

Have you ever tried 17 mascaras? What's your favourite mascara ever?

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥

MUA Lipgloss Review & ELF Goodies

I'm just back from London town, yay! Had a wee six day holiday there, will blog about it soon but for now here's a post I thought I'd scheduled for when I was away, but clearly didn't get posted. Hm. Oh well! =p

Some of you may have read about the awesome goodie bag I got sent from More! Magazine (check it out here) and I wanted to share a few things with you over time. Today, I'm gonna show you the MUA lipglosses I received, which retail for £1 each. I have tried some MUA products, but never lip products. I was sent three of the new Out There Plumping Lipglosses:

L-R Sienna, Peach Shimmer and Shocking Pink

They come with the standard applicator, but I had to work quite hard to actually get any product onto it.
Here are the swatches:

The most wearable for me is definitely Peach Shimmer. The colours go on true to swatching, and sit 'on' the lip rather than kind of adapting to your lip tone like some lip products do. They lasted a decent amount of time, nothing startling. They made my lips tingle a wee bit, no noticeable plumping action tho, although I rarely find lip plumpers to actually work.

These will not become my go-to lipglosses. But to experiment with some different colours, for £1 you can hardly go wrong.

I also got a few ELF products recently. One is the Mint Green nail varnish, which I posted about in my last NOTD here, and I'm gonna show you the other two now. One is an eyeshadow primer because I'm desperate for one after my UD Primer Potion ran out and my ELF Eyelid Primer turned out to be just 'meh'. I thought I'd give ELF another try, and bought the Studio Eye Primer and Liner Sealer (£3.50).  Here it is:

I actually really like this style. On one side is 'prime', which is a twist up solid, crayon style primer that glides on fairly easily, with a very small amount of dragging. One the other end is 'seal', which is one of those little nibs that you can dip into any eyeshadow to make it a liner. I doubt I'll use this side. Here's an example of some eyeshadows over the primer:

Left of each photo is without primer, right is over primer.

Left photo shows Urban Decay Naked/Naked2 Palette shade Half Baked, and right photo shows Urban Decay Naked2 Palette shade Bootycall

I'm impressed with this, the colours look much more intense. And here's the test results, photo on left is five minutes after I've put my makeup on in the morning, and pic on right is about eleven hours later:

Sorry about the lighting differences, just due to different times of day.

Not too bad huh? There was a bit of creasing on the lid but I think I have unusually crease-y eyelids anyways haha!  I'm actually quite excited about this product! I think it could defo become a staple in my daily routine! :)

I had to buy one last thing to get free delivery in ELF haha so I opted for the All Over Colour Stick in Golden Peach (£1.50). I have yellow undertones and in summer I tan really well, so I figured a nice peachy bronzer would look nice!

It has a lovely smell (in my opinion anyways) and is quite shimmery. I've read mixed reviews on this, but it was only a few pounds and I'll need to wait until I have a bit of a tan before I can try it out for myself! The swatch looks quite pretty tho:

So what do you think of these products? Are you a fan of cheaper brands, like MUA and ELF (they love abbreviations, don't they??)?

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥

Naked2 and Naked Comparison Review

I think I have a problem.

Oops.

So yes, I bought Urban Decay Naked2 after I already had two of the original Urban Decay Naked palettes. However, my kind sister is going to buy one of them off me so thank you Alie!! =p

As you can see, I caved. I bought the Naked2 online pretty much as soon as I could. I loved Naked so much, and I'd seen swatches on American blogs, that I knew I HAD to have it. And, don't get me wrong, I love it. I looove the shimmery eyeshadows (I know people wanted more mattes but I'm a sucker for shimmer) and the way they feel, blend and last. But I couldn't help feeling like a LOT of the colours are super similar to Naked.

I know you guys have probably read a hundred of these reviews already, so I'm not going to go into depth. You know it comes with a decent eye brush (shading and blending) and the most pathetic size of lipgloss ever.

The colours are as follows:

And yes, I did cut out the last shade (a matte black called Blackout). Don't ask me why.

And here's the customary swatches:

click to enlarge

In natural light (i.e. outside)

Inside, no flash

Inside with flash

So it's all very beautiful, especially Verve (a lilacy shimmer) and YDK (a delicious bronze). As you can see, Foxy barely shows up on my skin at all, no matter how hard I tried. However, I was glancing at my orginial Naked Palette and noticed some distinct similaries.

Naked top, Naked2 bottom.

Here is my opinion of which colours are similiar. Now bare in mind the only duplicated shade is Half Baked, but I do feel the following shades are very close in colour.

The top row is the swatches of Naked2 I had already done, underneath are the shades from the original palette which I feel are closest in colour to them (some have no comparison).

Here's more specific pictures:

No flash

Flash

Again, the top row is Naked2 and bottom row is original Naked.

a) Bootycall (N2) and Virgin (N)
b) Tease (N2) and Naked (N)
c) Snakebite (N2) and Smog (N)
d) YDK (N2) and Toasted (N)
e) Busted (N2) and Hustle (N)
f) Blackout (N2) and Creep (N)

As mentioned, none of the shades are identical, but as six of the shades are quite comprable, and one is a duplicate, it means only 5 of the 12 shades are completely unique to Naked2.

My conclusion is that if you didn't buy the original Naked and want to try out the gorgeous (and they ARE gorgeous) shades in Naked2, go for it! If you already have Naked and like it but wouldn't repurchase it, don't bother with Naked2. However if, like me, you LOVED Naked and more of the same is not a bad thing, then invest!!

What do you think guys? Are the shades too similar? Will you be buying it? Are you fed up of Naked2 posts already?!

Let me know!

~ Lauren ♥