No Money March: The Budget Contouring Palette

I know "strobing" is the latest makeup trend but I still think contouring is the most effective way to chisel out some cheek bones and add dimension to the face. I've seen the more high-end contouring palettes and while they look pretty I just couldn't justify dropping the cash on them since I wasn't sure how much use I'd get out of them. Then I found out NYX had one so I figured I'd have a look at it, and here's what I think.

So the palette is £18 in the UK and it's made up of 8 shades. My breakdown of the functions of those shades breaks down to 3 contouring colours, 1 bronzer, 1 banana-powder type shade, 2 shimmer highlights and 1 matte highlight/light face powder. This is currently available in the UK from Boots, Selfridges, Very.com and FeelUnique.com.

I'm really pale and I find most of these shades workable for my skin. Both of the shimmer highlights are lovely on me, the top left corner "Ice Queen" is a lovely pale pinky shimmer that looks lovely on the cheek bones and "Nectar" (top right) is an orangey peach shimmer that I use as a blush topper but I can see this working well on deeper skin tones as well. The formula on the shimmer highlights is the best in the palette, these are really soft and buttery.

The matte highlight "Soft Light" (second from the left) is slightly more powdery feeling. I use this as an all over face powder but it could work as a highlight on darker skins. "Cream" (the yellow shade) is really interesting because I though it would be too dark to work on my skin but I find it blends out great and really brightens the centre of the face. With it being another matter powder it's not as creamy as the shimmers but it's definitely not what I'd call chalky either.

For the bronze-y shades I find I can only really use the two centre shades. "Tan" (bottom left) is too dark to bronze with and too warm to use as a contour and "Hollow" (bottom right) is just way too dark but the formula is pigmented and blendable on both. "Sculpt" (centre right) is my perfect contour shade and "Toffee" makes a nice pale bronzer.

The packaging isn't the most glam looking and it feels a bit cheap, but it's really functional. It seems to be marketed as a pro product so the clear lid makes sense and the hard plastic is durable so I can see this traveling well. I also like that the pans are removable so if you just wanted to travel with one of two shades you could easily pop them out and put them in another palette.

In terms of bang for your buck, it works out at £2.25 per pan and each of the pans is 2.7g. For value it works out similar to their other bronzing products which run for £8 for 9g. I think these are really reasonably priced for what you get.

I also wanted to make an honourable mention to the Spectrum Collection Tapered Finishing Brush, for budget contouring, this brush is amazing. The pink handle and blue bristles is fun and the tapered cut makes it really easy to apply contour where you want it. It's a lovely soft brush that picks up product well and blends it seamlessly and it's a synthetic brush so its cruelty free.

The Friday Review: Nars One Shocking Moment Blush Palette

For the last few years Nars has released a limited edition blush palette as part of one of their autumn collections, and or the past few years, it sold out before I managed to get my hand on it. This year I signed up to the mailing list and I ordered it the second I got the email and I couldn't have been more pleased when it turned up on my doorstep last week. It's my first experience with Nars' base products and the palette contains a lot of permanent shades so I figured I'd give you the run down.

The packaging for the palette is lovely, nice and sturdy feeling and it has one of those "good click" closes that seems to be all important in the beauty blogging world. The lid of the palette is nicely decorated with a photograph (pictured above) with a text overlay. When you open the palette the lid is a big mirror and there's 7 products inside, four of which are Blush in: "Robotic" (limited edition), "Blasphemy" (limited edition), "Luster" (permanent) and "Dolce Vita" (permanent), there's also the "Paloma" Contour Blush Duo, and a Bronzing Powder in "Laguna" which is twice the size of the other powders in the palette.

In terms of value, I paid £49 for the palette and can't find any information on the value in pounds but Sephora are advertising this at $69 with a $169 value and looking at the amount of product you get in here, I can see that being about right. The blushes are all 3.5g of product (full size are 4.5g so slightly down sized), the contour blush duo is 3.5g each (full size is 2.7g and 5.5g so slightly more highlight and slightly less contour) and the bronzer is 8.5g (full size is 8g so slightly smaller than the palette size)

The two limited edition blush shades "Robotic" and "Blasphemy" are pinky shades with shimmer. "Robotic" is quite a subtle hint of blush that will play nice with a bolder lip look while "Blasphemy" is a slightly bolder blush, it's a mid-tone pink that will give more of a blushed look to the cheeks but it's still very wearable.

The permanent blush shades are nice as well. "Luster" looked like a shade I didn't think I'd get much use out of but after actually wearing it I can safely say it's my favourite out of all the products in the palette, it's a nice peachy bronze-y shade on the cheeks and is good to warm up a lighter skin tone. "Dolce Vita" is the boldest blush in the palette and will give the cheeks that winter-y "I've just been out in the cold" type flush and used lightly on the skin it's really pretty.

Looking at the shades in the palette to me there's something for every season, "Robotic" will be a spring-time staple, "Luster" will give you that summer time golden goddess look, "Blasphemy" will work well for autumn and then "Dolce Vita" is a nice winter blush pick. My only complaint with the blush shades is that everything's a bit shimmery, if they'd thrown in at least one matte shade I think that would have balanced things out a bit better.

Out of all the products in the palette, the Contour Blush Duo was my least favourite. On me the highlight shade looks like a normal setting powder, but if you're of a medium skin tone the highlight might actually show up on you. The contour shade was also a little out, it's just a bit too warm, even the bronzing shade looks cool toned beside it. I'd rather use "Laguna" lightly to contour and use the contouring shade in place of bronzer. I was a littler worried that "Laguna" would be way too dark on me at first but providing I use a light hand with it I can just about get away with it.

The palette is available now on narscosmetics.com and sephora.com and is also available for pre-order from Space NK.

Top 10 Under £10 - Complexion

The final instalment of the top 10 under £10 series here in Skint-tember is going to be focusing on all things complexion. This was a difficult one as even high-street base products often creep up to and beyond that £10 limit and there's a few amazing high-street base products that I love that didn't make it into the list on price, but here's the one's that made the cut:

I've said it before and I'll say it again, L'Oreal generally hit the nail on the head when it comes to base products and this list contains two foundations from them that are great. The True Match Foundation is a lovely light feeling foundation that's got a good build-able coverage and it lasts well on the skin, the shade range is amazing and it comes in just under budget at £9.99, easily comparable to much more affordable formulas and I'm more than happy to say that this is probably the best high-street foundation I've tried.

My second L'Oreal pick is there Infallible Matte Foundation, this is the one in the squeeze-tube packaging, again nice feel on the skin, good coverage, long-lasting. The shade range on this isn't quite as good at the True Match but the packing is very travel friendly. Best of all? This one's slightly more affordable at £7.99.

And finally for foundations, I thought I'd give the Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid Foundation, at £7.99 it's another one that's not going to break the bank and it's just a bit different. This foundation feels almost like a moisturiser on the skin and the coverage is build-able but it looks so much like skin. The thing I like most is the way it covers redness well but still lets my freckles peek through and it's a lovely comfortable formula with a decent shade range.

When I heard that New Look had released a make-up range I was all up for trying some bits but the stand was quite overwhelming and I only came out with a couple of bits but their Pure Colour Concealer is amazing. At just £3.99 it goes on like an eye-cream and the coverage is nice as well. The packaging does look a little bit cheap and the product doesn't actually say what it is once you take it out of the box which is a little bit annoying but the click-y pen style applicator is nice and the formula is clearly hat they're put the budget into.

I'd been looking for the perfect pale-skin contour for a while with no luck until I stumbled across the Maybelline Master Sculpt, this highlighting and contouring duo comes in at £6.99 and it's the perfect subtle contour for fair skins, not too grey, not too orange, not too dark. Love.

An oldie but a goodie is the ELF Studio Blush in "gotta glow" which is more of a highlight than a blush. It's great for the new "strobing" trend and it's the perfect way to lift the face if you wake up feeling a bit tired. I dust this under the eyes and on my chin, nose and forehead to bring some dimension to the face and it's lovely. At £4.50 it's not one of ELF's cheapest products but it's a solid pick.

And we'll finish things up with a few blush picks. When it comes to blush, MaxFactor are pretty much the brand to go to. Their Creme Puff Blushes are a lovely powder formula that bring a lot of glow to the cheeks, at £8.99 they're the priciest of my blush picks but the shade range is lovely , I think "Nude Mauve" is a particularly unique shade for the high-street. If you prefer a cream blush then their Miracle Touch Creamy Blushes are also really nice, slightly cheaper at £6.99 a piece, the packaging isn't the nicest but the formula is great and they're great for travel as they're so dinky.

If you want a standard one-shade blush the L'Oreal True Match Blushes are great. Lovely pigmentation and compact packaging all for £7.69. The shade "160 Peach" has been the only blush I've reached for since I picked it up a few weeks ago, it just brings so much life to the face. It also comes with a brush in the bottom of the compact but the brush is quite firm and the formula is quite pigmented so I'd recommend using a soft, fluffy blush brush instead.

August Favourites

It's favourites time again, I swear, these posts come around way too fast, I can't believe summer is almost over (especially since we haven't really seen a single day of sunshine here in Manchester). It's a bit of a weird bunch this month and not much on the affordable end of things, but never fear, the high-street posts are coming! So here's my favourites from August:

Firstly, I'd not used many eyebrow gels so I was excited to try the Anastasia Clear Brow Gel and it's really nice. I don't have particularly unruly brows, they're quite good and stay where they should be but I always notice the colour I put through them when I do my makeup fades throughout the day and this gel seems to have helped my other products last a little longer in my brows.

Another high-end make-up favourite this month has been the Esteé Lauder Double Wear Light Foundation. I have combination skin and my make-up generally breaks down pretty quickly in my t-zone where I get a bit oily and I've fallen out with my Revlon Colourstay Foundation because it's just been looking a bit heavy lately. The Esteé Lauder has been really nice because it's a relatively light coverage and it doesn't feel too heavy on the skin but it sticks around for a really long time, especially when set with a powder.

I've also been loving the Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel this month, it's really similar to the Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel in texture but without the rose scent so if that was something you didn't like about the Oskia you might want to try the Clarins. I've had a mini bottle for ages but just took the plunge and picked up the full size (because if there's anything I need in life, it's another cleanser).

The final two things this month are a couple of products that I've really enjoyed using together: the Maybelline Master Sculpt contouring product and the Charlotte Tilbury Powder and Sculpt Brush, which I've been eying up for months now. The Maybelline is nice because I have really pale skin and a good contour shade is something that I've really struggled to find but this one is cool enough to use as a contour and comes in a light enough shade that it doesn't look crazy on me and the Charlotte Tilbury brush makes it really easy to place the product in the right place.