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.

No Money March: Olay Daily Facials Cleansing Cloths

I could have titled this post many things referencing the unlikely-hood of what you're about to read, but there were so many choices that it all got a bit overwhelming and so I went for the obvious. Basically, Emily of Beauty Broadcast has been talking about the Olay Daily Facial in a Box on her channel for years now. So despite them being two of my top skincare loathes in one (foaming and face wipes) I just had to try them, and I'm pleasantly surprised.

These aren't your typical face wipe. They come in a box and they're dry cloths that you dampen and then they lather up. I picked up the kind for sensitive skin (in the UK I've only seen the "Sensitive" or "Normal" varieties, but in the Us I believe they carry options for both "Dry" and "Oily/Combination" also) and you get 30 in a box.

The sensitive cloths have holes in the cloth which gives them a slight texture that offers a tiny bit of gentle exfoliation to the skin without them being scratchy or abrasive at all. The actual lather is nice and soft and they cloths remove makeup really well without leaving the skin feeling stripped or dry. I personally use these to remove makeup either as a first cleanse or as a lazy night where I just want to remove the makeup and get to bed, but I can see them working equally well as a morning cleanse.

The only thing that has me a bit torn is the value for money. At full price they're £4.99 but they can be found on offer for £3 in a lot of places, so for face wipes they're a reasonable price but I just think that face wipes are generally not the most cost effective way to wash your face. However that being said, these are really nice and they're a lot cheaper than the Skyn Iceland Glacial Cleansing Cloths (£13 for 30) and they are the only other face wipes I've used that I'd recommend.

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.

The Skint-tember Finale - Highstreet VS Highend (Drugstore Dupes/Alternatives)

We couldn't end Skint-tember without looking for some high-street alternatives to higher end products and I've had a good rummage through my collection over the last few days to pick out some that I think are great.

I'll get this one out of the way because I have already mentioned it this month but I thought I'd touch back on it in case you missed my original post: if you still have took the plunge and picked up the Urban Decay Naked Palette and the price is putting you off, you might want to give the Revolution Redemption Iconic 1 Palette a go. The original post include side-by-side swatches so you can see how close they come and it's a steal at just £4 compared to the Urban Decay's £36.

My First ever MAC Lipstick was their "Lady Danger" which is a great matte orangey red. The dupe I've found for it is the Maybelline Colour Drama Intense Velvet Lip Pencil in the shade "Fab Orange". While I would say that the Maybelline is a teeny bit darker and slightly less orange-y toned than Lady Danger, on the lips you wouldn't be able to tell that it's two different lipsticks. Additionally, I find the pencil application method of the Mabelline makes it easier to get a smooth lip line without having to use a lip line.

I love Estée Lauder Colour Envy Lipsticks and the shade "Tumultuous Pink" is a particularly nice, bright pink shade. In the picture I'm wearing "Tumultuous Pink" on the bottom lip and on the top lip I'm wearing NYC Expert Last Lip Colour in "404 - Air Kiss" and, again, they're practically identical. If we're being picky the Estée Lauder is a tiny bit more blue in undertone and obviously has a better wear time but the NYC is much more of an affordable option at a mere £1.99.

I've been a fan of the Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliners for years and last year I picked up the Christmas set that included the shade "Faint", it's a lovely light brown that offers a subtle definition that I really like on the lower lash line especially. Side by side against the Rimmel Scandleyes Eyeliner in "004 Taupe", you can hardly tell a difference. "Faint" is a tiny bit warmer than the Rimmel option but the lasting power is very comparable and the Rimmel is just as creamy to apply.

When I was building my first ever MAC quad, I made the mistake of picking up a shade without swatching it first and got suckered in by how lovely it looked in the pan. MAC's "Gleam" is an amazing glittery peachy-pink shade but it's a nightmare to apply, it's bitty in texture, the glitter falls down constantly, and by the end of a day wearing it you have no eyeshadow left on and glitter all over your face no matter what you're using for a base. So while It does actually cost a tiny bit more to pick up the L'Oreal La Palette Nude Blush, you're getting more colours for your money and the 5th shade from the left is a dead-on match for "Gleam" but it's nice and creamy to apply and doesn't fall down at all.

And finally, the dupe that I'm most excited by. When I first heard about the By Terry Ombré Blackstar in "Misty Rock" I had to have it, it was so unique and the formula was nice too, but the £28 price tag made my eyes water a little bit. I justified it because the colour was so unique and I've used it a tonne, but then I picked up the KIKO Long Lasting Stick in the shade "05" and it's identical in colour and the formula is creamy and long-lasting. I will continue to use and love "Misty Rock" but when it's time to repurchase, I think I'll be picking up another from KIKO.

The Friday Review: MaxFactor Miracle Match Blur & Nourish Foundation

On a recent trip to Boots I was looking around for something new to review and saw one of the little blue "New" stickers on the end of the MaxFactor counter, and with me being on the hunt for the perfect foundation I picked up their new Miracle Match Blur & Nourish Foundation to give it a go.

While the shade range wasn't extensive (those with a darker complexion may struggle with this one) I found that shade "40 - Light Ivory" was a really good skin tone match for me and I think we all know that I really struggle with foundations not going light enough for my ghostly complexion. I also like the packaging for the product, it's the typical MaxFactor oval glass bottle with a pump and a plastic lid but the pump on this one has a locking mechanism which is nice, while glass bottles aren't the best for travel, the locking mechanism makes it more travel-friendly.

On application, I did notice a very strong almost almond-biscuit-y scent to the product that was off-putting for me but once it's on the skin the scent isn't noticeable on the skin. The coverage is light-medium and buildable, I personally would still need to go in with a concealer to cover dark-circles and blemishes but it just evens out the skin tone. The formula feels light on the skin and blends to give a very natural finish and I went in with a powder to set the foundation as I do with all base products.

The product last relatively well but does begin to break down for me before I finish a whole day at work, I often have to re-touch products in my t-zone especially as this is where I have problems with oiliness. I think this foundation would be no good for oily complexions and combination will have to touch-up in areas of oiliness but for a drier skin type it's got a lot of moisture to it. On thing I will mention is the skin on my cheeks is quite dry and skin is usually relatively blemish-free, and within 1 day of applying this 3 white-heads appeared on my cheek and nothing else had changed in my routine. I'll do some more testing and update on that front but I think this may clog poe and cause blemishes from my experience and I'm a tad cautious to use it again.

The Friday Review: Aroma Actives Lift & Firm Serum

After picking up a coupe of masks from the Aroma Actives line and loving them (the Deep Cleansing & Purifying Clay Mask is lovely), I wanted to pick up a few more products from their range to try and I was drawn in to the Lift & Firm Serum because it has hyaluronic acid in it, and as we all know, I love me a hyaluronic acid serum.

The packaging is nice and simple, a white tube with a pump at the bottom is both practical and aesthetically pleasing for a lower-cost brand and you get 50ml of product so it's a good size for a serum. The serum applies like a light moisturiser and has a light cooling feeling on the skin before sinking in to the skin quickly.

It leaves the skin feeling moisturised but for me it doesn't offer any long-term benefits. It's not the type of serum I'll put on at night and wake up the day with my skin feeling plumped and juicy or particularly healthy-looking, it's pretty much a bog-standard moisturising serum from my experience. That being said, it's a good serum to use during the day as it makes a nice base for makeup.

But the one thing that has ruined this serum for me? The scent. It's a very heavy, over-poweringly fragranced product. It's a powder-y, floral scent that you can't really escape whilst applying and it does linger on the skin after application. As it's a nice product in every other respect, I am slowly working my way through it and trying to use it up but I definitely wont be repurchasing which is shame because the scent just really lets it down and it's inescapable.

The High-Street Makeup Starter Set

It wouldn't be a high-street-centric month without a post dedicated to my top high-street makeup picks, so I've rounded up my recommendations for what I'd pick up for someone just starting out in makeup. Maybe you don't need an item from every category but if you wanted to buy a full face with every step, here's what I rate from the high-street:

So for primer, there's only one, high-street or high-end, that I really reach for these days and that's the MaxFactor FaceFinity Foundation Primer. It's designed to make your makeup stick to your face better and I think it does a great job at just that. This is one of those products that I maybe don't reach for everyday, but when I need my base to really last I crack this out.

In my opinion, L'Oreal do some of the best foundations on the high-street, and their True Match Foundation is one I've been a fan of for a long time now. It feels light on the skin but the coverage is nice and last a long time without feeling heavy on the skin. Also? The shade range is great, so there should be something for most people.

Concealer was always that product that I thought high-street brands didn't do overly well, I'd tried a good few over the last few years and they were all just a bit heavy or drying on the skin. In the last year or so that seems to have changed dramatically and now you can pick up great formulas for less and my favourite at the moment is actually the New Look Liquid Concealer, it feels like it could be a skincare item it's so light on the skin, and the coverage is nice without being cakey, it's also insanely affordable.

My powder recommendation is obviously the Soap & Glory One Heck of a Blot, will I ever stop bleating on about this? Probably not. Its finely milled, controls oil amazingly. A must-have for all with oily skin.

I've foud that MaxFactor seem to do the best blushes on the highstreet, with both there Creamy Touch Blushes and their Creme Puff Blush formulas being lovely, L'Oreal do some nice powder blushes too but I think MaxFactor wins on the grounds that they offer two different but great formulas in a good range of shades and so I can imagine most would find something they liked from Maxfactor.

If you're into contouring, you can now have that on a budget with the release of Maybelline's Master Sculpt Contouring Palette. I really struggle to find contouring products even in the high end, they're always a bit dark or a bit orange or a bit muddy. But this one is amazing, and it comes with a small but perfectly formed highlighting powder too. Genius.

If contouring isn't your thing but you just want a bronze-y glow, the Soap & Glory Solar Powder is probably a pick you'll enjoy. It's has two shades, a lighter and a darker bronze that can be used separately or swirled together which means you can customise how much bronze you get. And they're updated the packaging so it's not so flimsy anymore, yay!

Finding a traditional eye-primer on the high-street was a tough-y. The only brand that really seems to stock one was Rimmel, and while their Exaggerate Shadow Primer doesn't quite rival formulas from Urban Decay and such the like, this is still going to be a nice base for your eyeshadow that will make them apply a little easier and last a bit longer.

For a powder eyeshadow palette, I was going to choose the Maybelline The Nudes Palettes because the shadows in that palette are not messing around, they're buttery and pigmented and rival higher-end brands in terms of quality, but if you're trying to cut back the price even more then it's got to be the Revolution Redemption Iconic 1 Palette, as mentioned in my review post last week, it's a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked Palette for £4, who could ask for more?

Now for eye-liner I was going to recommend the Rimmel Scandaleyes, and if you want some nice coloured liners, that's where you need to go, but for a basic black the Maybelline Master Drama swooped in at the last minute and stole my heart. It's a great formula, a solid jet black, so comparable to Urban Decay's Perversion liner. I won't dwell on the Maxfactor 2000 Calorie Curved Brush Mascara because we all knew it would be in here. It's amazing, it's the best, need I say more?

For brows I'm loving the No7 Beautiful Brow Sculpting Pencil the chunky nib makes for a speedy application and the spool-y brush on the end is perfect. This has kicked my Soap & Glory Archery Brow Pencil to the back of the class in my collection.

And then for lip products, I had to pick two, a bold matte and a glossy neutral, becuase not everyone likes both. The bold? Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvets, again you've heard about them on here quite frequently but they're just great. The my glossy option would be the Maybelline Colour Sensational Shine Glosses, nicely tinted, not sticky, great shine.

And there we have it, a whole face of high-street products.

Brand Binge - Maybelline

I've seen a couple of vloggers do videos where they focus on one makeup brand, do a full face with products from that brand and then review the products and I was interested to see how that concept translates into blog from. So I thought I'd have a go and here's the first brand: Maybelline.

So first things first: foundation. The foundation I picked for this post was the Dream Satin Liquid Foundation in the shade "10 - Ivory" which is a tiny bit too dark for me but other than that teensy issue (which lets face it, I have with at least 90% of base products) then this is quite a nice pick. It's very emollient on the skin which makes me think you might really like this if you have a dryer skin type and I'll definitely have to check back in winter once my face starts to dry up a bit on that front. The coverage is decent for a very natural-finish foundation and the lasting power is good. The thing that really makes this foundation stand out for me is how nicely it breaks down on the skin, it doesn't leave you patchy or orange-y at all.

My second base pick is the Instant Anti-Age Eraser Eye Perfect & Cover Concealer, which I had to majorly hunt down to get my hands on. The shade "light" was particularly tricky to track down but after getting my hands on one, I can see why. Much like the foundation I picked up from them, it's a nice coverage without being heavy and it's hydrating but stills packs a punch where lasting power is concerned. The price points on these products are brilliant too, definitely worth a go I'd say. (Although whats with the sponge-tip-thing? trés germ-tastic if you ask me).

To set everything I dusted on some of the Fit Me Pressed Powder in "115 - light" (are we sensing a theme here?) which is a product I usually keep in my hand bag and while it's great for on-the-go touch-ups, for me, it's not a setting powder. It's a lovely, finely-milled powder that's weightless on the skin but for me, the oil control just isn't there and it doesn't lock my make-up in place the same way as a MAC Mineralise Skin Finish Natural or my Soap & Glory One Heck of a Blot, for me those to are the bench mark for setting powders and this just doesn't seem to be one of those products to me.

To chisel in some cheekbones I reached for the Master Sculpt Contouring Palette in "01 - Light Medium" and this has quickly become a staple in my collection. It's the perfect contour for those with a fairer skin as it's light but it's not orangey or muddy. Then to warm up the cheeks I nipped in to the blush side of the Dream Sun Bronzing Powder With Blush and ran some of the bronze-y side down my neck to blend the foundation in with my actual skin tone. Now for me, this was a flat-out bad product. The Master Sculpt and the Fit Me Pressed Powder are finely milled and pigmented powders, so Maybelline can do a good powder formula, but I found the Dream Sun to just be a bit chalky and I felt like I had to do a lot of work to get some colour out of it. I'd give the bronzing blush a miss if I were you.

Then moving on to eyes, I used the Eye Studio Colour Tattoo 24hr Gel-Cream Eyeshadow in "05 - Eternal Gold" as my base, from what I could see Maybelline don't currently offer a standard primer that would be comparable to say the Urban Decay Primer Potion but the Colour Tattoo's are great for holding powder shadows in place. I was going for a gold-y shadow look on the eyes and this made the colours pop a bit more and kept my shadow looking fairly polished all day long.

I topped the Colour Tattoo with some shades from their The Nudes Palette, which I've been reaching for a lot recently. The shadow's are buttery soft and I find the formula completely comparable to more expensive brands, the shimmers are slightly easier to work with than the mattes but you get 12 shades for around £9, which compared to the Urban Decay Naked Palette range, it's a steal.

I tight-lined with a little bit of the Master Drama Khol Liner in "Ultra Black", which I'd completely overlooked for a while because I'd gotten very much caught up in the Rimmel Scandleyes ones but these eye liners are not messing around. Creamy to apply, good lasting power, It's safe to say I won't be picking up another Urban Decay 24/7 Liner in "Perversion" while Maybelline still have this formula on their shelves.

To finish off the eyes I brushed on a few coats of their The Colossal Volume Express Cat Eyes Mascara which was a dud for me. Mine came with a massively faulty wand that was bent in on itself to the extent that I had to re-work the wand to actually use it, and the formula just did nothing for my lashes. I'd love to try a few more from the line as I was under the impression that Maybelline were sort-of known for their mascaras but this just didn't hit the mark for me. I used the Brow Satin Brow Pencil in the shade "Medium Brown" to fill in my brows. I really liked this when I first got it because tit has both the pencil and the powder and I was just getting into pencil brow products at the time, now I'm more into a pencil formula I find I rarely use the powder end and would much prefer a spool-y brush on the other end. That being said, the pencil is nice and the shade selection is quite good, especially for the price point.

And finally, the lip. I'd left it quite neutral on the eyes so I wanted something a bit punchier on the lips so I slapped on their Colour Drama Intense Velvet Lip Pencil in the shade "410 - Fab Orange" which is an orange-y red (think Nars "Red Square" but more satin in finish). While these aren't as long lasting as the Nars pencils, they're obviously much less expensive and more comfortable. Personally, I never find anything that will last a whole day without touching up at all on my lips so I'm happy to opt in for a slightly more comfortable lip product most days and reapply every so often.

Disappointing Products: High-Street Fails

I'm not a massive fan of the typical "disappointing products" posts as they can be a bit negative and obviously everything in beauty is subjective and just because I didn't like it, doesn't mean you won't. So this isn't a post of me saying "I hate this product, don't buy it". It's me saying "This is a product I may or may not use or enjoy, but I was disappointed with it BECAUSE...", and in giving my in depth opinions, I hope I can help you make your own decision on whether or not it's something you'd want to give a go.

A quick one because I mentioned this in my review post last week is the Rimmel Lasting Finish Foundation. I use this a lot and I love the coverage it gives, it's actually a beautiful coverage and the finish looks great in pictures and I'm really not knocking it in terms of it's appearance. That being said, when you see "25hr lasting finish" on a foundation bottle, you expect it to be a least somewhat long lasting and, for me at least, it's just not that product. Maybe it's not intended for my skin-type or maybe there's something I'm doing wrong with my application, but for me, it needs a mid-day touch up as it deteriorates in my t-zone by lunchtime.

Mascaras always make it into disappointing products posts it seems and the one I've been really unimpressed with lately is the Bourjois Liner Effect Mascara. It doesn't seem to do anything for my lashes at all except tint them. I have quite straight, short lashes so I need a mascara that does it all really and this one just didn't seem to do much.

And finally for makeup: the New Look Pure Colour Eyeshadow Pencil. I've been trying out a lot of shadow sticks lately and for me this works more as a sticky base if you wanted to go in with a powder shadow after applying. The colour is beautiful and it applies nicely, but it seems to blend out to nothing and even afew applying a few layers, it still looks sheer. It's a shame because there's lots of products in New Look's line that I've heard great things about and the concealer in the line is amazing, but these were just a bit of a miss for me.

A couple of skincare bits that I wasn't much of a fan of are both exfoliating products interestingly enough, the first being the Nip + Fab Glycolic Fix Serum, firstly, it's heavily scented and I really don't get on with the fragrance in the product. That aside it just didn't seem to do much for my skin. It's the only exfoliating serum I've tried so maybe my skin just prefers a manual or liquid exfoliant but Nip + Fab do some amazing glycolic pads so the serum was a bit of a disappointment by comparison.

The last product I wasn't such a fan of was the Soap & Glory Peaches and Clean Cleanser which is a 3-in-1 product that is basically an exfoliating cleanser. I used this quite a lot when I first got it and really enjoyed it, but I tried to come back to it recently after not using it for a while and my skin seems to have gone off it. It leaves my skin feeling red and irritated and I think it's just a little bit too harsh.