Holy Grail Beauty Products #1

After sixteen months, my Benefit Hello Flawless foundation is almost coming to an end (what a long-lasting product!), so it's been about time that I go on the hunt for a new foundation. I thought about sticking with Benefit because I love them so much, I was even slightly swayed when I received some free samples of Urban Decay's Naked Skin foundation. But I decided that I wanted to go cheaper this time, and braved the drugstore counters!

Now, this may sound slightly ridiculous, but I've always been too scared to try drugstore foundations. Because I didn't brave foundation until I was 19, and I've always gotten matched at 'high end' make up counters, I just didn't trust myself to pick a shade that matched my skin tone. I know, silly, isn't it? However, on Friday I decided to woman-up, and I frog-marched myself, bare faced, into Boots, ready to test out the many foundations they had in stock.

I did my research beforehand. It's no secret that I love a good beauty guru on YouTube - they probably take up over a third of my subscriptions. So I looked up some videos about the best drugstore foundations and let the makeup whizzes do the talking. Once I was aware of what foundations worked best with sensitive and dry skin, I hovered over to the brands that catered to that, namely Bourjois and Rimmel.

I settled on the Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum (not to be confused with the Healthy Mix Foundation) and I've got to say, I love it! After a bit of testing on my jawline, I settled on colour no. 53 - Light Beige, and it is a perfect match for my skin tone (ten points to Gryffindor)! This gel foundation claims to boost radiance and give you an even, revived complexion, and they're not wrong! It's pretty light coverage, which is perfect for me, since when I'm wearing foundation it's not really to cover up, it's more to even out my skin tone. But you could build it up to a medium coverage and it would look just as nice. It is also vitamin rich, containing fruits such as lychee, goji berries and pomegranate, which explains its gorgeous smell. Priced at £10.99, and overall, get's a big thumbs up from me!

12 hours after application… No cakey-ness!

I still love Benefit, of course, but I've found that during the course of the day, the foundation tends to gather and cake up on particularly dry patches of skin, which is not a great look! (I also had the same result with UD's Naked Foundation) So Bourjois' Healthy Mix Serum takes the cake, but don't worry Benefit, there are still many other products of yours that I can't live without!

Next holy grail item was an impulse buy - Rimmel's Wake Me Up Concealer. I already have a concealer, Collection 2000's Lasting Perfection concealer, which I bought some time ago when all the beauty gurus raved about it. And they were right to, it's a brilliant product, really good pigment. However, for me, I just find the formula a bit too thick, and out of the (small) selection of shades they have, not one of them matches my skin colour completely, so I had to settle for a slightly lighter one. Also, with my particularly dry skin, I also find that it emphasises that dryness, which again, not a great look.

So when I was taking a look at Rimmel's Wake Me Up Foundation (nice product, but a little too sparkly for my liking), my eyes hovered over to the concealer and I fell in love. Not only did I find a shade almost exactly my skin colour (030 - Classic Beige) but the formula is simply gorgeous. It glides on so smoothly, is buildable to the coverage you're after, brighten's up dark under-eye areas, and - this is the big one - doesn't emphasise my dry patches. Jackpot!

And that is part one of my Holy Grail makeup products! Hope you enjoyed reading, I have a few more to come.

Which brings me onto a small announcement - I will be setting up a regular schedule on this blog, finally! Monday will be beauty posts, Fridays will be fashion related posts, and if I have time midweek or at the weekend, I'll throw in a miscellaneous post in the mix, like a music review or a lifestyle post. I'm excited!

Ciao,

"Put on some lipstick and pull yourself together."

I've always loved the idea of lipstick and the women who wear them. We've all seen those chic French girls with cropped hair and a dash of red lipstick, making them instantly look fabulous. It is such a simple way to add instant glamour to your look. Even though I've always thought of myself as a 'lipstick person', for a long time I only really had one in my make up bag. It's only in the last year or so that I've started experimenting with different shades and acquiring a modest collection.

So without further ado, let's take a peek at the lippies that take residence inside my make up bag. 

Starting with the nudes, we have Nude Delight by Rimmel London and L'Oreal's Kiss and Blush. As you can see, the L'Oral has been worn down a bit, and that's because it's the oldest on in this collection, the very lipstick that started off my love affair. As you can see from the swatch, it is very shimmery with a lightly pink tinge, an all-round great girly lipstick. I bought the Rimmel so that I could have a more matte nude lipstick, for days where I don't want to bring attention to my lips but still want to wear something on them.

Onto the 'darker' colours (for a lack of a better word). The first, a fairly new one, a classic red by MUA (it doesn't have the name at the base so you'll have to bear with me on the lone swatch). Does it really need elaborating? For times I want the 'classic French chic' I mentioned before. I think everyone should have a staple red lipstick in their make up bag. Its also really matte which I like, but I always have to make sure to moisturise my lips beforehand so they don't dry out after a while. Next is Showbiz by 17, a nice vibrant pinky-red that really shows through once on your lips, and its a nice spin on the classic red (how many more times am I going to say 'classic' in this post?) Finally we have Rimmel London in Electric Plum. First of all, I really love the name, whenever I pick this lipstick up I'm always saying it in my head, and sometimes out loud, over and over again. Don't know why, I just love it. This is one I typically wear at night, like to a meal or a night out, as I'm not really a fan of dark lipstick colours in the day.

And finally we have oranges, the newer and braver additions to my palette. I started getting into orange/coral lipsticks after discovering beauty blogger Zoella and her Youtube channel. Had I not been exposed to her before, I would have thought that orange was an absurd shade of lipstick to wear. But seeing how good and so not crazy it looked on her, it swayed me to have a try. To ease myself into the bold new colour, I started off with Magnetic Coral by L'Oreal, still orangey but with some pink undertones to soften it up, and I have to say, it's my favourite and my go-to daily lipstick. In fact, I even wear it at night sometimes too, I love it that much. Typically when my make up and outfit combination is quite dark, to brighten up and so that the look isn't too severe. Since I had some much luck with this one, I decided to purchase Zoella's favourite Infrared by Topshop. This one is definitely a true orange, and I have to say, it took a bit of getting used to when I first tried it on. Though in the swatches they look quite similar in colour, you can notice the difference a bit more when actually on the lips. I'm still getting used to it, but I really like it, and I think when I find the right look to wear it with, it will be in its element.

So there we have it, my small collection of lipsticks. It's a good one I think, each one has a purpose, and I can guarantee to find one to match my mood or what I'm wearing. Do you have a favourite lipstick brand/shade?