Blogmas Day 6: Winter Skin Care

With the harsh, bitter weather kicking in, unless we walk around wearing balaclavas, the skin on our faces is in for a bit of a battering. 

This season, moisturising is more important than ever, and Nourish have it all under control. They recently sent me their Argan Beauty Collection in the form of this cute Christmas gift set to review, and it's been my lifesaver. 

We should have all heard of Argan Oil by now; it's good for practically everything. Nourish have gone and got me in the Christmas mood with three Argan Oil miniatures featuring  gold , frankincense and myrrh (how apt). 

Argan Skin Rescue

This little bottle of dewyness is the first thing you should put on your face after a good cleanse. With collagen enhancing qualities , it gives a fresh, moist appearance to your skin and creates a perfect base for make-up application. 

Argan Skin Renew 

Who knew you could pack so much goodness into such a little tub? The hydration levels of your skin can be instantly boosted with just a pea-size application of this glorious stuff. Team it with the Argan Skin Rescue and you've got a match made in heaven. As weird as it may sound, I couldn't stop poking my face after using these. My cheeks have never been so soft. 

Golden Glow Illuminating Face Shimmer

I like to see this as the icing on the cake. After all that moisturising, I didn't really feel like smothering my new found dewyness with foundation and what not. This face shimmer, with gold mineral particles adds just a hint of colour and luminosity to your skin. I'm pretty sure I've discovered the secret to the flawless red carpet I'm-not-wearing-any-makeup look. 

READ MORE

Get a Fresh Faced Look with Clinique

Ever since doing the Cheek Pop review, I've become a massive fan of Clinique products, and couldn't wait for the opportunity to do another one. Clinique were kind enough to send me three samples for a fresh faced 'awake' look which I was so excited to try out.

 Natural make-up looks are perfect for Summer. No one wants a cake face in boiling hot weather. There's nothing worse than your make-up slipping half-way down your face. 

Now I have quite an extensive make-up routine, so when I realised I had to create a fresh-faced natural look with just these three products, I wasn't sure if it would work. 

The first of the products was the SuperPrimer which colour corrects dullness in deeper skins. It actually took me a while to get used to this, because it's texture is very different to other primers that I've used. It's nowhere near as wet, and dries instantly once upon the skin, whereas others leave a dewy, moisturised feel.  It's also tan in colour, which surprised me. But the more I used it, the more I realised that both the texture and colour work to benefit your skin and the finished look. The dryness creates the perfect matte base for you to apply foundation too, so that it doesn't cling to any particular area, whilst the tan colour helps to gently even out your skin tone, whilst adding just a slight bit of colour to your face.

I have quite dry skin, and when my skin was at its worst, I found this primer a little too dry, but to fix this I used a thick moisturiser, left it to dry thoroughly, and then applied the primer. Problem Solved.

Next is the Airbrush Concealer. I fell in love with this instantly. So easy to use, and with the primer it creates brilliant coverage with no need for added foundation. It's so light on the skin, and reflects light, which hides any dark areas (this baby is absolute magic for dark circles under the eyes). It also works as a highlighter, particularly in the corner of the eye and just below the eyebrow.  I now take this absolutely everywhere with me. It's perfect for when you want a quick touch up, without having to heave out the foundations and brushes etc.
My only complaint would be that you can't see how much you've used, so you can't see when it's running out, and considering how much I love it, that's something I'm going to need to know.

With your skin sorted, the last thing to focus on is your eyes. No matter how fresh your face looks, if your eyes look tired it will ruin the whole look. This is where this bad boy steps in. Clinique's High Impact Mascara adds length and volume to an extent where it opens up your eyes, creating a wide-eyed effect, whilst at the same time separating them to make your lashes look as natural as possible. Nobody likes a clumpy mascara. 

So here's the complete look:

All in all, I am so happy with these products. It's actually changed my make-up routine completely, because in testing these product I've become so used to a light layer of make-up that I don't want to go back. The days are getting hotter, and we're all going to be looking for an answer to our melting make-up problems. I think Clinique have it! 

Steph x x x

READ MORE

Jane Iredale Starter Kit

Afternoon all!

Just recently, the lovely people at Jane Iredale sent me over their new Starter Kit, which is aimed at helping you to achieve radiant skin in three easy steps.

Before I went to university, I worked in a hair and beauty salon, and the beauticians were always using Jane Iredale on the clients. It was a brand I’d never heard of before, but the clients absolutely loved it. So a few months ago I reviewed their Puremoist Lipstick for a newspaper I write for, and began to understand why this brand has such a strong reputation. All of their products are of amazing quality, and the brand has your skin’s best interests at heart.

Now I’ve tried a lot of foundations and as you’re probably aware from my recent make-up post, I’ve come to the conclusion that nothing can beat mineral foundation, so I was well and truly excited to be given the opportunity to work with another patron of this make-up wonder.

The Jane Iredale Starter Kit contains a Primer, an Amazing Base, which is basically a loose mineral foundation, a PurePressed Base, a Hydration Spray and a mineral foundation brush, all of which come in a chic travel-size cosmetic case with an extra-large mirror.

The Amazing Base is for more of a luminous, natural look, whilst the PurePressed Base gives a semi-matte look. After trying both separately, both matched my skin perfectly, but I didn’t find the coverage as strong with the PurePressed Base as I did with the Amazing Base. The PurePressed Base would work really well for a light, daytime look, if you don’t like wearing anything too heavy. The Amazing Base is light too, but the coverage is more of a matte porcelain look. For me, I used both, and really loved the results. I’ve also never had a foundation that matches my skin tone so perfectly. I absolutely hate the line of foundation you get just above your neck, and no matter how much I blend, I’m always really conscious of it. I loved that with these products I didn’t have to worry about that.

I found that the brush provided wasn’t dense and rigid enough to blend the minerals into my skin; instead it just kind of stroked me. So I opted for my Body Shop mineral foundation brush, which did the job perfectly. Before I knew too much about make-up, I never bothered with primer, but I’m slowly being convinced as to why it’s a worthwhile investment instead of a money making scheme (I sound so cynical haha)  The only other primer I’ve tried is the RevlonPhotoReady Perfecting Primer (which by the way, is INCREDIBLE), so I only have that to compare to. I was really happy with this one; it creates a smooth and matte base which works really well with the other products by minimising the appearance of pores and increasing luminosity. The only criticism I’d have is that the amount given in this starter pack isn’t enough. One thing I love about mineral foundations is that you don’t need a lot, and they last forever, but I’m almost half-way through the tube of primer, and I’ve only had the products a week.

I’ve never used a Hydration Spray before, and had no idea what it was for. So for those like me, the POMMIST Hydration Spray helps to set the minerals and give your skin a dose of healthy botanicals. The smell of this stuff is amazing. It’s like spraying fruit juice on your face, but without the stickiness. I find that with the primer and good quality of the foundations, the make-up lasts pretty well on its own, but I guess there’s nothing wrong with an added helping hand. I think a product like this would be more useful during the hotter months, when you can feel your make-up sliding down your face.

So all in all, I’d give this product 4/5.

I adore the foundations, and although I have intentions to review plenty more, until I find the next best thing, Jane Iredale’s foundations are my new make-up soul mates. I love the primer too, but there just isn’t enough, and I’m yet to discover the full benefits of the Hydration Mist.

Retailing at £34.95, I’d say this little set is well worth the price if you’re just getting into make-up and are looking to test out mineral foundations, primers and hydrations mists for the first time. If you were to buy these products individually, it would cost you a lot more, so for those make-up newbies out there, it’s a worthy investment.

Steph x x x

READ MORE

My Daily Mask

Happy Saturday people!!!

What are you guys all up to this weekend? 

I'm off to see The Book Thief with my Mum after waiting for what feels like decades for her to finish the book that I lent her. 

So I have a lot of plans for make-up and hair posts for this blog, which I'm really excited about. But before I start any of that, I thought I'd share with you my daily make-up routine. The majority of these products will most probably feature in future posts and for me, they're the Crème dela crème

Products I've used:(Top left to bottom right)

Body Shop Extra Virgin Minerals Powder Foundation Brush

bareMinerals Original SPF 15 Mineral Foundation in Medium Beige

BareFaced Beauty Mineral Blush in Selene

Bourjois Powder Brush

Bourjois Volume Glamour Max Mascara

Art Deco High Precision Liquid Liner 01

Betty & Walter Rose Lipbalm

For me, bareMinerals is the Holy Grail of foundation. I bought it on a whim after testing it in Debenhams. I've tried so many foundations over the years from Estèe Lauder to Yves Saint Laurent , mainly because I struggle to find one that suits my olive skin. I also have quite a dry T-Zone and was finding that all the liquid foundations I was trying would just cling to the dry areas, and it would look gross. 

With bareMinerals, the range of colors is incredible, and because of it's mineral nature and blendability,  it adapts to my skin tone. 

One thing I really disliked about liquid foundation was that I didn't feel like it looked natural, and I was so conscious that I was wearing it. 

The Body Shop Foundation Brush is amazing at blending, and by the time I'm done, I'm left with flawless, natural looking coverage that feels so light and lasts all day, and that's without even using primer. 

BareFaced beauty is a similar brand in the sense that it really focuses on the skincare benefits of using minerals. The color looks quite harsh in the pot, but I use a very tiny amount for some natural looking warmth. 

It's a pretty good job that the base of my daily routine is so natural looking, because as you can probably tell from the picture below and previous posts of mine, I choose for my eye make-up to be the main attraction, and with all the other foundations and blusher's I have tried with this particular eye make-up style, it was just way too heavy. 

I'm pretty sure that if, like me, you're a winged eyeliner fiend, then no matter how many years you've been doing it, you're never quite satisfied with the outcome, with one wing ever so slightly wider/longer/thicker/angular than the other. For years I used pencil, thinking that I couldn't move onto liquid eyeliner until I was a wing master. I finally made the move, but nothing I tried cut it. That was until I was asked to do a product review for Art Deco make-up, and they sent me their precision liner. With this product it's the closest I've ever got to creating wings that I'm happy with. 

I found liquid eyeliners with short, hard brushes difficult to use when creating a wing that flows, so the long brush on this product is perfect. 

I also use this tutorial that I found to create the shaped wing that I like. 

http://www.topinspired.com/top-10-eyeliner-tutorials-for-irresistable-cat-eyes/

So there it is. I wear this look so often, and it works with practically everything, giving a delicate yet alternative edge to an outfit. For an evening look (which I'll do in another post) if I don't feel like changing my eyes, I'll pair this look with either a dark brown or a dark purple lip just to add a more sultry, gothic touch, but at the same time keeping it feminine. 

I hope you're liking my blog so far. I'd love to get some feedback, so feel free to tell me what you think about it so far. 

Who of you out there is a fellow winged eyeliner lover like me, and what products/techniques do you use to create the perfect wing? 

Steph x 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

READ MORE