My 'Perfect Face' Wishlist | High End Make-Up

Aloha. I tried to make this wishlist using Beauty Sets originally as it seemed to be a really popular tool a little while back, but I just couldn't seem to find my way around it and make it work for me, so I've resorted back to trusty old Polyvore as my collage maker.

This is what I would call my 'perfect face' wishlist, as it is a compilation of all the make-up items that I wish I could afford and that I feel would be everything you need to look amazing. If I sold 10x more Avon products than I do now then I would definitely be working my way through ticking off everything on this collage but for now, it stays as a 'wishlist'. Boo. :(

I know it's a little bit fuzzy so I'll just run you through what's on here, starting with the base (of the face) and working through: I have a selection of three primers on here, just because I couldn't choose and they are the Smashbox 'Photo Finish', Clarins 'Instant Smooth', and Laura Mercier 'Foundation Primer'. My two foundations of choice are Nars 'Sheer Glow' and YSL 'La Teinte Touche Eclat', however Laura Mercier 'Silk Creme' would have been on there if I could find an image for it! For powder I have chosen bog standard Mac MSF in Light - powder isn't a product I tend to lust over. For concealer I have my sights set on Benefit's new release: Fake Up, and that orangey looking pan beneath it is the Bobbi Brown Corrector (I would need a lighter shade than the one shown). Moving across to eyes, what else could I choose other than the Urban Decay Naked Palette? And with a Naked Palette must come an eye primer too of course. Bang in the middle we have lip products of choice: YSL Rouge Volupte in shade #8 Fetish Pink, and Nars lipstick in Niagara - ahhh I want this so badly! Okay, back to some more for the eyes keeping it pretty simple: Bobbi Brown gel liner and YSL Shocking mascara. Finally on the bottom row: Chanel Tan de Soleil bronzing base (yes please!), Dior blush palette and Nars Albatross highlighter. Phew, not asking for much then? 



I just roughly added up the cost of everything on this collage and it totals approximately £450.

So, yeah, keep dreaming Hannah.

Like Me On Facebook - Follow Me On Twitter - Follow Me On Bloglovin'

♥

Holy Grail Make-Up: YSL Touche Eclat

Well this little pen of golden goodness and wonder is going to be given a nomination for the 'most awkward and annoying product to photograph for a blog post' award from me. Huuuge frustration took place trying to get this post together, but it's done now and we're here to appreciate and sing the praises of one of the UK's most popular beauty products: YSL Touche Eclat. For me, this a 'holy grail' make up item and one that I can't live without and turn to on practically a daily basis (of course I would technically be able to live without it.. I would just prefer not to). I've tried some of the cheaper dupes out there but I just feel that nothing else will ever be able to compare and come close to the quality and luxury that YSL offers.

This product can often be confused as being solely an under eye concealer, which is what I used it for for quite a long time too, but it is supposed to be used to highlight, illuminate and add radiance. It is a highlighter, not a concealer. Although it doesn't make any promises to conceal dark areas I still find that it is effective and does the job more than well enough for me. It is my favourite way of using this product as I find that it has enough coverage for dark circles and also brightens up the eye area too; something that all of us need from time to time when we haven't had the best nights sleep in the world. The image below shows my eye with nothing but mascara and Touche Eclat so you can see that the coverage is high. Dark circles? What dark circles? If on a day where more coverage is needed then I will apply the Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer and then apply the Touche Eclat on top to take advantage of it's light reflecting properties to bring more brightness to the area.

This is a brand new one and I can't say that it didn't hurt forking out £25 for just 2.5ml of product but it literally is my favourite item of make up, ever. From the high end name tag, to the luxurious golden pen, to the soft and delicate brush applicator, to the perfect complexion matching shade, to the coverage, and all the way to it's primary function: highlighting. It's important to understand how this product can be used to it's full potential and not simply for concealing under eye circles. Completing a make up look, sculpting and brightening a face and adding extra dimension to any appearance is achievable with something as simple as the click of a button and the sweep of a brush.

Blended out gently with the fingers in the desired areas (under eyes, cupids bow, brow bone, center of the nose, tops of cheekbones) it provides long-lasting light reflection and brightness to make the face seem more awake and radiant. No discoball shimmer or glitter, simply a 'glow from within' - ha I hate the description 'it makes you look glowing', but this really does (in the best way possible).  

It's not for everybody and some people can't quite understand the hype or justify the price tag, but for me it is a 'must have' and the perfect 'pick me up' product, and if it can't save me from looking tired then I should be worrying! I have the shade #1 which is 'luminous radiance' and also the 'original highlighter' shade so that it should be suitable for most people, but since June 2011 there is now also a wider range of shades available; some more pink, some more yellow and also darker and more olive toned shades too.

This can be bought from any YSL retailer, such as Debenhams, for £25.00 (link)

Do you love the YSL Touche Eclat highlighter as much as I do?

Should I be considering trying the foundation now too? 

Like Me On Facebook - Follow Me On Twitter - Follow Me On Bloglovin'

♥

Review: Nivea Express Hydration Primer

So, which category do we put this one in then?

Is it skin care, i.e. a moisturiser?

Is it make up, i.e. a primer?

Nivea: What is it?!

This is what Nivea says:

"A light gel cream which absorbs instantly so you can apply make-up right away. Moisturises your skin with effective Hydrators & Vitamins for long-lasting hydration and provides an even and smooth base for effective make-up application. Helps make-up to stay in place"

Okay, so it's basically a two-in-one product and we all love those don't we, kill two birds with one stone and all that, especially if it's something that is going to reduce the time spent on a morning routine. What this 'gel' does is acts as a moisturiser and a primer, which is clever because they are both the stages that I tend to neglect the most. I don't know if I'm the only one, but I get too frustrated in a morning having to apply moisturiser, hang about until it's all sunk in, then dig out a primer, then a foundation, then a powder, blah blah blah just layering more things onto my face, and if I was to skip any step then it would be a toss up between the moisturiser or the primer (I know it's naughty not to moisturise..). 

So this is the perfect moisturiser for any lazy bones out there just like me who like to minimise these steps and it works to hydrate the skin as well as prepping and priming the skin ready for the day's make-up, as well as helping it to last longer (although not dramatically longer, maybe just an hour or two).

The gel consistency helps it to be light on the skin and be really quick at sinking in, which I love because it means I don't have to sit and twiddle my thumbs before I can slap on some foundation! Since using this I have found it to be just 'okay' at performing its combined functions; it's not the best or the worst moisturiser, and it's neither the best or worst primer either. But it performs adequately in both areas and for the price (£4.99, regularly discounted to £3.99) then it's hard to grumble. For someone who isn't too fussed about spending a huge amount on their skincare and likes the lazy girl way out of a product being a 2-in-1 then this will probably be perfect for a lot of people! I like using it when I don't need a moisturiser that's too intense and for just basic every day wear when it's nothing special, it makes a great cheap and cheerful make-up base.

Like Me On Facebook - Follow Me On Twitter - Follow Me On Bloglovin'

♥

Review: Soap and Glory 'Sugar Crush' Body Wash

Hi girls. Friday at last! Today's post is heavily related to the one that I wrote yesterday as it is about another product from the 'Sugar Crush' line by Soap and Glory. [Yesterday's post: link]. The line is fairly new and is a little different from their standard 'pink' range with the girly and floral smells, as this one is more citrusy and fresh. The Sugar Crush only contains 3 products at the moment: the body scrub, the body wash, and the body butter. If they bring out a 'lotion' as opposed to a 'butter' in the form of this smell then I'm going to be dropping everything and running straight to Boots for it. **(I wrote that sentence and then saw that it says on the bottle to 'follow with a similarly scented lotion or butter' - does the lotion already exist?!)

I was so happy when I bought this a few weeks ago and it was certainly 650 Boots points well spent! I popped it in my shower as soon as I got home and the humongous fluroescent pink and yellow bottle certainly brightened things up in there. As I just said, the bottle is absolutely massive, and I like that it has a pump dispenser so there's no hassle, no mess and no waste when using this in the shower And no slippy hands dropping bottles on toes..

The formula is rich and creamy and foams up to create a really lovely lather than cleans the skin well without stripping it of moisture and it leaves the skin conditioned and nourished after use. It is a similar scent to the scrub that I was talking about yesterday; it's really fresh and 'zesty', it's got a real 'wake me up' feel to it. Absolutely perfect to use first thing in the morning to perk you up out of your zombie state and every so often throughout the day I catch a little hint of the scent from my body.



I don't know if it makes me sound like a little bit of a loon that I have gone so ga-ga over a body scrub and a shower gel, but there's just something about Soap and Glory that they just keep getting right! They keep on bringing out these fabulous products that I just cannot get enough of.

Have you tried the Sugar Crush range yet?

Like Me On Facebook - Follow Me On Twitter - Follow Me On Bloglovin'

♥

Review: Soap and Glory 'Sugar Crush' Body Scrub

Hi girls, hope you're all having a good week!

I'm going to talk to you all today about a recent new favourite product of mine that I am absolutely obsessed with! I'm literally using it every single day because I can't have a shower without it.. and nobody needs to exfoliate that much do they, really?

This body scrub from Soap and Glory was a part of the 'Best of All' gift set that I bought for myself as a little Christmas treat (you can see it in this haul post), but I'd been lusting after anything from the new 'Sugar Crush' range for months and months. I know that it's a little bit of a love it/hate it kind of smell with this range, and it really is unique, but I personally absolutely love it! Can I admit that sometimes when I'm in the bathroom I open the tub just to stand there and sniff it? Don't judge me. The scent is sweet and sour mixed together in a way that my nostrils don't really know how to handle it. The zingy, zesty lime fragrance hits first and is the most powerful, but there is a sweet and smooth undertone of brown sugar that balances it out to make it super yummy. (I never thought that I'd be spending my Thursday afternoon talking about a balance of scents!). If I've not sold you on how brilliant the scent is then run down to Boots and stick your nose in a tub of this ASAP.

Onto the scrub itself; it's a gooey consistency that melts to a little bit of an oil base (it does contain almond oil to soften the skin), and it has large but not overly abrasive grains of macadamia to scrub the surface of skin. Rubbed into the body it gives just the right amount of cleanliness, fresh exfoliation, softness and moisturisation, and sweet smelling skin!

I've never really been much of an exfoliation fan just because I've not seen the need to do it; I'm not a big fake tan wearer and the skin on my body isn't dry and flakey, it's just 'normal'. This was one of those products that I used 'because it was there' and now I've fallen in love and don't want to be without it. I'm converted to the world of scrubbing up! It costs £8.00 for 300ml which I think is reasonably priced because the tub lasts a long time (although not at the rate I'm going through it) so I expect that I'll be getting myself some more once I have eventually run out.

Since using and falling head over heels in love with this scrub, I have since gone out and bought the matching Sugar Crush body wash to get all the yummy Sugar Crush-ness that I can get!

Have you tried the Sugar Crush range yet?

Like Me On Facebook - Follow Me On Twitter - Follow Me On Bloglovin'

♥

Review: Aussie '3 Minute Miracle' Reconstructor For Damaged Hair

Okayyyyy.. so a couple of weeks ago I was brimming with energy and couldn't shut up about how I was going to blog every single day of March as a little challenge to myself. How did that work out for me? Well I've just skipped four days ..so not too great! I've had a lot on my plate recently and thought that blogging would be a productive distraction and some time well spent taken out of a busy day, but in reality I was just trying to juggle one too many things and eventually crashed and burned - Ooops.

Intro aside, today's review is of my absolute number one favourite hair mask and it's cheap as chips and a widely available one from Aussie. There is a slight variant of the price of this depending on where you buy it from, but I think it's standard RRP could be £4.99. Around different supermarkets and stores such as Boots and Superdrug, however, you will frequently be able to find offers such as '2 for £7' or '3 for £10' across the Aussie line so you're guaranteed to grab yourself a bargain.

It's not just price of this deep treatment that makes this a winning product for me, it also has very impressive genuine results on hair condition too and can give much more expensive and higher end products a run for their money! The results may not be a permanent reparative solution for damaged and split ends of the hair, but it definitely offers a brilliant short term fix. '3 minute miracle' is quite an apt name for this as it only needs to be left on the hair for a couple of minutes after washing as usual and then it is rinsed away to reveal hair that has had a brand new lease of life breathed into it - just what we all need from time to time!

It gives exactly the results that you would expect; soft, smooth, manageable, 'silky', and just general healthy conditioned hair, but this one had an added bonus of having the most amazing smell thrown in the mix too! Most people will be familiar with the scent of Aussie products, but it's a super sweet and yummy bubblegum fragrance that fills the whole bathroom and lingers on the hair after use too.

Of course, the packaging of this bottles makes it not the most convenient for travel (it doesn't have a real lid at all, just a squeezey hole in the bottom), but I don't think that a deep treatment for my hair is top of my list for things to pack for a trip away, so that doesn't matter too much anyway! And also, be careful if you have butter fingers because it doesn't fare too well if you drop it. 

There's a couple of other variants of Aussie's 3 minute masks, such a 'Take The Heat', 'Frizz Remedy', 'Colour', 'Luscious Long', and their newest release: 'Miracle Shine' too. I've tried the 'frizz remedy' mask before too and found it to have very similar results to this reconstructing mask, although the reconstructing mask seemed slightly more intense. It's personal preference which mask you feel is most suited to your hair but I doubt there's a whole lot of difference between the formulas and this one never, ever lets me down!

Whether you're on a budget or not, if you're looking for something to perk your hair up then this is one to give a try!

Grease Lightning | Lush Skincare

 

You don't get spots? Ever? Not even one little one every so often? Okay, well I don't believe you. We're all human, spots happen to even the best of us ..unfortunately. It just so happens that the little buggars seem to be very fond of my face and like to make camp there quite often (sucks to be me!).

 

This 45g bottle from Lush has come in very handy recently and works as an exceptionally effective spot treatment. Like all Lush products it contains a very intruiging concoction of natural ingredients, just a couple of the components of this one include: tea trea, witch hazel, aloe vera, and seawater - all antibaterials and antiseptics that work together and create visible results quickly.

 

What Lush says:

"This product goes on invisibly, whilst the ingredients set to work on your spot to help stop it in its tracks.The seaweed gel will make sure that the skin around your spot isn’t disrupted too much, so that when the spot starts to retreat, you won't be left with a damaged circle of dry skin"

 

Named 'Grease Lightning' because it works at super speed, this works great as an over night treatment and 9 times out of 10 in the morning I've found a spot to be dramatically reduced in size and redness and by the 2nd day it is more or less gone. The reason I say it works best as an 'over night' treatment is because of the one issue I have with this product and that is that although it is a clear gel when it comes out of the pump (and Lush themselves claim that it is 'invisible'), after it has dried onto the skin it is not completely transparent and does dry as a slightly visible film over the applied area. It is also not great to use underneath make-up either as it can create a kind of 'flake' over the skin (the product is a 'flake', not your skin) as it doesn't sink in.

 

Just because it doesn't make such an effective day time treatment doesn't mean that it can't work wonders over night when nobody can see your face though! I simply apply it to a spot before bed and then wash it away in the morning and find that my spot has shrunk down and is on it's way out of the door, thank goodness! It doesn't dry the skin out or have any other adverse effects on the area, simply fights the spot and leaves the rest of the skin in peace. Before using this treatment I would use just tea tree oil on it's own, but this is like 'tea tree oil ..and friends', so it has more intense and effective results for a very similar price to a bottle of tea tree oil - plus this doesn't have any strong or overpowering fragrances either.

 

If you're interested then you can buy it online from Lush here: link, or can purchase it instore too.

Price: £5.95/45g.

Review: Burt's Bees Nourishing Lip Balm With Mango Butter

This £2.99 tube of wonder featured in my February Favourites post with good reason. Everybody needs a good quality lip balm on hand in the cold and winter months and this one from Burts Bees has been my 'go to' for dry lips recently. And not even necessarily when my lips are dry; it smells so good I just want to keep applying it all day long and enjoy the fresh and fruity fragrance of mango - Mmm! It applies smoothly, releasing it's tropical scent, and leaves the lips soft and nourished with a tiny hint of gloss but zero tackiness or stickiness.

This is a 100% natural balm so it's all good for you, and it 'soothes, moisturises and protects' which is a pretty standard claim from a lip balm really. The difference with this one is that since it is all natural ingredients it contains no petroleum jelly; just oils, butters and the likes of lanolin - you know, all the good stuff that means it doesn't just 'sit' on the surface of the lips, instead it sinks in and it gives your lips some real benefits. Plus, the mango butter is a super ingredient as it is rich in vitamins and antioxidants so is just that little bit extra nourishing for the lips. Not to mention smells (and tastes) amazing!

This mango balm is from their 'nourishing' range, but it looks like you can also get acai berry to 'rejuventate' and pomegranate oil to 'replenish'. You can see a couple of their other amazing products on the Burt's Bees site here: (link), but I ordered mine from Feel Unique for just £2.99 (link) and with free delivery too you'll regret not trying this out!