No Money March: The Affordable Brand Overview - LOC Cosmetics

I've spoken a lot about Birchbox lately (although rest assured that I have no sponsorship or affiliations with them, they're just doing some cool things lately) and I've been waiting for this UK launch since I saw Tati's video about her collaboration with them (here). Birchbox recently started up there first in-house brand LOC (Love of Colour) and I managed to get my hands on the whole collection, so lets have a look.

So firstly, when I say "the whole collection" I should be clear that the whole collection currently consists of just 5 products. They have 2 eye shadow sticks and 3 lip crayons available at the moment and if the US line is anything to go by I feel like it won't be long until the range expands a little.

The first thing I picked up were the eye shadow sticks. I have both shades but of the two I personally find "Champagne Problems" to be the more wearable shade, it's a nice cool silvery-taupe shade with shimmer and it makes a great lid shade and also works nicely on the lid. The other shade available is "Perfect Cents" which is a warm golden shade with shimmer. Both shades are really pretty, I just find that really warm shades don't sit as nicely on my skin tone.

The formulas on these are amazing. They apply nice and creamily to the lids and you have a decent amount of time to work with them so they blend out really effortlessly. Once you've blended them in they set down on the skin and are pretty much budge-proof. I don't experience any creasing with these at all.

I also really like the matte lip crayons. These are currently available in 3 shades: "Skinny Dip" (a warm nude), "Trouble" (a vibrant slightly warm red) and "Uncorked" (a bright berry). I find the formula on these to be comparable to the Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencils, they're not quite the same but they have that almost powdery feeling finish on the lips and the staying power on them is really good.

They're super affordable products at £8 each for the eye pencils and £6.50 each for the lip crayons. They're also available in value sets which makes them an even better deal, you can get all 3 lip crayons in a set for £14 or if you want the whole collection thats available for £25 so definitely high street pricing. Being an in-house brand these products are currently only available to purchase via Birchbox's website.

My one gripe with these is the amount of product you get. The shadow sticks contain 1.35g of product and the lip crayons are a mere 0.6g a piece. Now for the shadow sticks it's not too bad as I find the standard amount of product for an eyeshadow pencil to be around 1.6g a piece. The lipsticks however, not so much. I compared these to the Nars pencils before and Nars give you 2.4g of product for £19, so LOC give you a quarter of the amount of product for around a 3rd of the price. I do really like the LOC lip crayons but I can't honestly say I feel they give you value for money.

No Money March: New Revlon Mascara Marathon - Ultimate All-In-One

So we're having a theme within a theme this week. We're on a month of high street beauty bits and I'm devoting this week to a pretty big launch from Revlon. I've liked a few of Revlon's mascaras in the past but they recently pulled the plug on every single mascara they had on offer and replaced them with a new line of 5 new ones, all targeted at a different lash concern.

Today we're looking at the Ultimate All-In-One Mascara, which is the one with the red lid, and after looking at the marketing behind these mascaras, this was the one I wanted to try the most. Revlon market this as "the holy grail of mascaras" and claims that it features

"5 lash transforming benefits leaving no lash behind, allowing you to achieve:

- Volume

- Length

- Definition

- Lift

- Intense Colour

It’s all about the brush:

The revolutionary small but mighty Revlon Power Mini Brush has a hollow core, designed to maximise the amount of formula to the lashes, as well as a unique mini oval shape for easy application, which reaches and covers every lash to create an intense and unbelievable length lash look."

If those aren't bold claims, I don't know what are. Honestly? I was really disappointed with this one. I find that while the hollow sections are intended to hold product to create an "unbelievable length lash" actually make it near impossible to build any length at all. As I applied the mascara volume built up very quickly and as I applied more coats to try to build length I found my lashes started to look clumpy.

The formula also has little lash fibres in the formula but the teeth on the wand aren't long enough to comb through the lashes so any fibres that are deposited onto the lashes aren't necessarily straight. In terms of the formula I got the non-waterproof and I didn't notice massive amounts of smudging or flaking and it was easily removed at the end of the day with a cleansing oil.

No Money March: Soap & Glory Archery Brow Putty Dip Pot & Brush

Brows have always been the one area of makeup that I feel like I can never get quite right. I have naturally sparse, mousey brows and I've always dyed my hair darker and in a way that makes my natural brows look borderline non-existent. With that in mind, every time a new high stress brow product launches, I get a bit excited and so I picked up the Soap & Glory Dip Pot & Brush pretty much as soon as I saw it had launched.

So the packaging of this looks very much like a jumbo pen eyeliner packaging, it's quite a thick tube with a pull off cap and initially I thought the product would be in the cap of the packaging. When you pull the cap off there's a clean brush underneath and the product is in a pot that you unscrew from the bottom of the product.

My initial though is that the packaging is a little clumsy. This is essentially a brow pomade type product and it would have been much more practical for them to package it as a pot with a separate brush like other brands have released and I think S&G have packaged it this way to make it look like it's something really different. At £10 full price it's at the same price point as most of Soap & Glory's other brow products and it sits in the upper end of high-street pricing.

Packaging aside its nice. The brush is small enough for you to not overload the brows and the product is dry enough and sheer enough that you don't end up looking like you've sharpie'd on your brows. The shade selection isn't terrible, there's 3 shades to pick from "Love is Blonde", "Brownie Points" and "Dark Chocolate", Soap & Glory's brow products usually only have 2 shade varieties so this is a step in the right direction for them.

With it being a brush that you have to dip into product it's not nearly as quick to apply as a brow pencil but I wouldn't say that it takes so long that it's impractical and the finished result is nice and natural looking. I do think it's missing a spool-y brush to comb through the brows as with the formula being quite waxy I like to comb through the brows both before application to make the shape easier to follow and then again after I've filled them in to blend in any areas that I may have been heavy-handed in.

All in all I think it's a decent product. While I have some gripe with the packaging it does work nicely and it's not unreasonably priced. If you're into brow pomades it might be worth checking out.

Then and Now - L’Oreal True Match

I've been using the L'Oreal True Match Foundation on and off for a few years and it's been in and out of my favourites list ever since the first time I tried it. After having forgotten about it for a while I rediscovered it around a year back and fell back in love so I was a bit nervous when they announced that they were reformulating. (I though it was going to be the Revlon Colourstay all over again). Long story short, I picked up a bottle of the new formula and I've been trialling it against the old one to see how it compares.

In terms of the packaging, quite a lot of people have been commenting that the new packaging is "more sleek" and seem to really like it. I think it's just really basic and I prefer the shape of the old bottle. The old one has some nice curves to it and it just looks a little more unique and a little more interesting. Both the old and new bottles are made of glass, both have sturdy silver pumps and both have clear plastic lids so they've not changed up the layout, it's just the shape.

I use shade "N1 Ivory" in both the old and new formulas and there doesn't seem to be any difference in the shades available. None seem to have been renamed and none seem to have been removed so if you had a skin tone match in the old formula the shade you used previously should still match you in the new one. The blendability is equally nice on both formulas, I personally like to apply most foundations with a damp sponge and that's what I do with both of these.

In terms of the actual formula, it does seem to have changed. The new formula has a slightly higher coverage and is a bit more moisturising on the skin. Interestingly, despite there seemingly being a higher moisture content in the new formula, it also seems to last a little better on my skin. The original formula seems to start breaking down after about 6-8 hours where the new one I probably get 7-9 hours out of the new formula before any shine starts breaking through. Not much of a difference there but still worth mentioning for those who struggle with staying power.

One thing I didn't like so much about the new formula is that it's not as matte in finish. This is obviously going to be one of those things where your own personal preferences will come into play but if you do prefer the matte look, you can take away some of the shine with a mattifying finishing powder. It's possible that L'Oreal have made the True Match less matte as their Infallible Matte Foundation is now catering to that audience for them and they wanted to make this a bit more of a middle ground option.

30 Lips in 30 Days - Rimmel The Only One Lipstick

Day 9 of the 30 lips challenge and I'm super excited about this one. I'd heard a lot about the Rimmel The Only One Lipsticks and they intrigued me and I had to pick one up. The packaging is a nice thick black plastic that's sturdy and interesting and I love the fact that they have a band round the bottom that reflects the shade inside so if you have multiple shades it's easy to find the one you want. The lid on these is quite long and the base is quite short which can make the lipstick a tiny bit difficult to open but that's my only issue with it so far. For £6.99 they're not bad.

It applies nice and creamy and has a good amount of moisture to it so when you first apply it, it does have a good have a bit of sheen to it on the lips. As you wear it, it does start to dry down and the sheen wears off and it does become less comfortable and I would just top it up as it becomes more uncomfortable. The scent isn't my favourite - I find that Rimmel lipsticks are very hit and miss with the scents, this one is very sweet but almost perfume-y but it doesn't linger too long. I also really love this particular shade "700 Naughty Nude", it's a slightly deeper nude and it really seems to just lift the face.

30 Lips in 30 Days - NYC Liquid Lipstain

Day 4 and back to budget with the NYC Smooch Proof Liquid Lip Stain. The packaging on this is nice for a budget product, a classic black lid doe-foot applicator with a colour-co-ordinated lipgloss tube type of set up. The one bug bare I have with it is that the writing smudges off on your hand as you hold the product and leaves you with black ink-y hands which isn't great.

I'm pretty sure the shade I have is "100 - Faithful Coral" but the shade names don't seem to be on the packaging which can be annoying if you need to repurchase. It's a soft orangey neutral shade that shows up quite sheer on the lips but can be built up to a decent colour pay off and the lasting power is decent. It's very water-y upon application but does dry down to a matte finish which becomes more drying the longer you wear it so not a good option for those with dry lips.

A Thing For Eyeshadow Sticks

I've loved eyeshadow sticks since the days of MAC Shade Sticks and while my original cream shadow stick is long gone it's nice to see that the format is coming back and other brands are releasing their own take on this convenient, multi-purpose product. In this post I'm going to have a look at some of the highs and lows of what's on the market at the moment.

So lets just get the most disappointing pick out of the way shall we? I'd heard lots of great things about New Look's recent beauty launch and some of the face products I've tried have been lovely, but their Pure Colour Eyeshadow Sticks didn't hit the mark for me. The colour is so sheer that I can't imagine anyone would be satisfied with the colour pay-off enough to leave it as it is and i just needs to be topped with a powder shadow. With that in mind it's been really ard to test the actual lasting power of the product, because really it doesn't manage to last through the blending process, never mind the day.

I had a very similar issue with the NYC City Proof 24hr Waterproof Eyeshadow. I couldn't really test the lasting power or the waterproof claims of this products because it's so sheer that for me it's an eyeshadow base rather than an actual eyeshadow. This product also has the disadvantage of having the worst packaging for an eyeshadow stick, the lid isn't secure at all and will 100% fall off if you tried to travel with it.

The No7 Stay Perfect Shade And Define eyeshadow sticks are a little better. A decent colour selection and the colours show up nicely on the eye but these one's struggle with wear time. If you're out for a couple of hours this might be an option for you but it does crease even when set with a powder shadow after a relatively short amount of time.

Things are starting to look up with the Bourjois ColourBand Eyeshadow & Liner. These are actualy really nice, creamy to apply, nice pigmentation and wears well on the lids. The only problem I have with these is the shade selection is quite small. They do have classic black, brown and champagne colours as well as a few wearable brights but the colours are generally a bit shimmery and they could do with expanding the range a bit more to include some more unique colours.

A comparable product to the Bourjois is the Charlotte Tilbury Colour Chameleons. These are great eyeshadow sticks that are pigmented, easy to apply and last well on the eyes. The thing that sets the Colour Chameleons apart for me is the shades, I have the shade "Golden Quarts for Hazel Eyes Day" and it's so unusual. I'd pitch the shade as a rusty gold with green-ish undertones and it has flecks of golden glitter and it was just love at first swatch. They also have an amazing green and a gorgeous smokey purple that I may have to pick up in the future. At £19 each they're a treat but hey aren't too crazy for what they are.

If you're looking to really treat yourself and are looking for an eyeshadow stick, you don't have to look any further than the By Terry Ombre Blackstars. They've been mentioned on the blog before and whilst they are unbelievably pricey for an eyeshadow pencil, they are also really nice. The shade selection for these is so on point, there doesn't seem to be a single colour that doesn't look pretty and they're so unique that I can just about justify spending the money on them.

However my top eyeshadow pencil pick is the KIKO Long Lasting Stick Eyeshadows. They're pigmented, long-lasting, easy to apply AND they're £6.90 a piece. So you can pick up 4 of these for the same price as just one of the By Terry and they're so comparable. Last month in my "Highstreet VS Highend" post (clicky link here) I mentioned KIKO's "05" being a pretty perfect dupe for By Terry's "Misty Rock" and with 31 shades in the collection, I can imagine they'll be something for everyone.

Fleur's Lip Launch

When Fleur De Force announced that she was releasing a makeup line I headed straight to feel unique and signed up to the waiting list. In her videos her lipstick has always been something she gets right and I just had a feeling that the lip products in the range would be something worth trying. While the eyeshadow quads looked nice they weren't really unique to me and I decided against picking them up but maybe I'll give them a go if she releases some more unique combinations in the future as they did look nice.

While they're currently only being sold on FeelUnique.com the price £6.99 each price point puts them as a high-street product for me so I thought it would be fair to include them in skint-tember and for the money they seem to be really nicely though out products, I can see myself possibly trying out some more shades in the future.

So I just picked up two shades to begin with, and the shades I have are "Starry Starry Night" and "Written In The Stars". I like how she's got a clear theme with the product names but I do think that it will be hard to continue with the "star theme" if she goes on to release more products but I like the amount of thought that's gone into the products. I picked up a light shade and a darker shade to see if there was any difference in the formula and from what I can see it's a nice consistent range and both the lighter and darker shade show up glossy and opaque as the mentioned in the description for the products. The packaging is also nice, a gun metal top and doe-foot applicator and the "Fleur De Force" logo on them, and the lipgloss tubes reflect the colour of the product inside which I like.

In terms of the actual formula, the glosses are thick on the lips and you can feel them during wear but they are a smooth texture rather than a super sticky gloss. The thickness gives them a decent lasting power on the lips and they're comfortable and moisturising on the lips rather than sticky feeling. Fleur describes them as "somewhere between a lipgloss and a liquid lipstick" and I can see why she'd use that description, they're glossy in finish but are also opaque on the lips and don't need too much building-up. I will mention with the darker shades, I did experience a slight bit of bleeding with "Starry Starry Night" and that's not something I get very often with lip products so if that's something you struggle with I'd keep that in mind.