Review | Revlon ColorStay Foundation

If any of you are regular readers of my blog, you will have seen a make up haul post fairly recently in which this foundation featured. I have now got round to using it quite a lot and testing it out and thought I would do a review of my thoughts!

I was in need of a new foundation and had heard great things about this one, so I thought I would give this a go. I went into Boots to pick it up and found myself already impressed with it before I had even brought it. This was because I went up to the stand and saw they had different versions of this foundation for the different skin types, so there was one for combination/oily skin, and one for normal/dry skin. I just thought it was great that skin type had really been considered by Revlon and that they had specially formulated different versions of this foundation to suit all. I picked up the one suitable for my skin type, the normal-dry one in the lightest shade Ivory.

When I came around to using this, one thing unfortunately disappointed me straight away and that was the packaging. It is in a glass bottle just with a normal screw on lid and no pump. This makes it quite challenging to get the foundation out of the bottle without pouring out more than you need and it going to waste. 

Other than that though, I have no complaints about this foundation at all! It claims to stay on the skin for 24 hours, now I'm not sure if that is true because I have never needed my make up to stay on for that long, but I have had no problems with it rubbing off and have found it stays on my skin all day. It is quite a lightweight foundation so it feels nice and comfortable on the skin and leaves a nice flawless finish with a medium-full coverage.

This comes in at the fairly affordable price of £12.49. I can see how this may seem a little much for a drugstore foundation but I personally don't think it is too bad considering the high quality of it as it is probably as good as some of the higher end foundations I have tried.

I am very impressed with this product overall and would be happy to repurchase it and recommend it to others, I just really wish they would re-design the bottle to include a pump!

Have you tried this foundation? What are your thoughts?

Emily x

Benefit 'Finding Mr Bright' Kit

So the other day I was browsing the benefit counter as there are a few of their products I want to try out, and I ended up buying this kit. It is called 'Finding Mr Bright' and is a kit made up of some of their best highlighting make up. It includes several of the products I had wanted to try, so I figured why not try the sample sizes in this kit first. 

left to right: Girl Meets Pearl, Posie Tint, High Beam, Erase Paste.

The Girl Meets Pearl product is described as 'a golden pink liquid pearl for the face', and can be used as either a primer or to put on top of other make up to add an extra glow to the skin. I think it would also make a great highlighter as it has very similar pink tones to the High Beam. It leaves a lovely glow and I am enjoying using it!

I'm not so sure about Posie Tint. It is a good lip stain but not the best on the cheeks, its a little too runny and doesn't apply to the cheeks well. It is a lovely colour on the lips and I will continue to use it as a lip stain, but I don't love it enough to purchase the full size.

I had particularly wanted to try the High Beam highlighter, I've heard alot of great things about this and it certainly lived up to them! It is a perfect highlighter which leaves such a lovely glow. I would definitely consider buying this in the full size.

The Erase Paste is a great concealer, i found it is especially good for concealing under the eyes. The kit comes with the medium shade which if anything is a little dark for my skin, but other than that I have no complaints!

All in all I think purchasing this was a good move. It comes in at £28.50 which still seems rather expensive considering how small the samples are, but when you compare it with the prices of the full size products, it isn't bad at all! It was great to sample the products first so now I can make a better decision on which I enjoyed enough to purchase in the full size.

I will definitely be sampling some of their other makeup kits! Have you tried any out?

Emily x

Topshop Lip Crayon in Arcade

Believe it or not, I actually didn't own any Topshop make up at all up until recently, so I went along to Topshop the other day and picked some up! 

Amongst the things I brought was this Lip Crayon in the colour 'Arcade'. It is a purpley toned colour, which is rather darker than I would usually go for, but I thought I would be brave and try it out! 

As you can tell from the pictures below, it does look rather dark in the swatch. It also came out very dark on the lips. It was too dark for my liking, but after blotting the lips a little it became more of a wearable colour for me which I actually really like!

(sorry about the terrible quality, I took them once it was dark so the lighting was awful. I will update with better pictures soon)

                                   

I'm not very familiar with the idea of a Lip Crayon. I know a lot of people have said they find them easy to apply as they are just like a thick pencil, but at first I actually found it rather difficult to apply compared to a normal lipstick. I found the formula of it to be a little sticky too. I'm not sure whether this is what they are all like or if mine had melted a little though.. did any of you find that when using this kind of product? Either way, I did find it a little difficult to master at first and although I have got the hang of it now, I still find it more difficult to apply than a normal lipstick and find it that little bit messier. Maybe that's just me though!

On the plus side, it is very pigmented and is a great product for lasting a long time on the lips. I also didn't have the problem with it drying my lips out like I often do with lipstick. 

With the price tag at £7, I would say it's fairly affordable as I'm sure I will get a lot of wear out of it. Also, I think it will last a good while as it is like a pencil, so you can keep sharpening it as you use it up!

Have any of you tried these lip crayons? Do you prefer to use these or lipstick?

Emily x

Review: Maybelline Rocket Mascara

Last week I ran out of the mascara that I was using for my day to day make up, so needed to pick up a new one. I was previously using the Rimmel Scandal Eyes mascara but I really wasn't mad about that one so I thought I'd find something new to try.

As its more affordable, I tend to stick to drugstore make up for my everyday look so I had a look around Boots. 

The mascara I chose was the new one by Maybelline, "Rocket".

This mascara is the latest addition to Maybellines "Volum' Express" range, which also includes mascaras such as the "Colossal", "Falsies" and "One by One".  I had used all of these mascaras several times in the past and have often enjoyed these products, so I didn't hesitate to pick up the latest offering. Also, as a new product to the shelves it was on an introductory offer at only £5.99, another reason not to refuse!

I picked this up on Saturday so have only used it for two days so far, but the results are looking good...

The range focuses on giving volume to the lashes which is definitely noticeable with this product. It is said to give your lashes up to 8x more volume, and I agree it does this, but what I found I love best about this product is how amazing it is at giving my lashes length too! 

This is the brush which Maybelline are calling their exclusive "Jet Glide Brush". It is quite thick, with very fine and flexible bristles which help to define your lashes whilst adding volume, and leave zero clumps!

I am definitely glad I picked up this mascara, I knew it was unlikely to let me down if it was from the same range that I've enjoyed so many times before, and it certainly hasn't!  I can put this mascara on in the morning, go about my daily activities and find it still looks almost perfect by the evening. 

For me, I think this mascara has the whole package - it defines and separates lashes, adds length and volume, is long lasting on the lashes and comes in at a low price! You can't get much better than that.

Have any of you tried this product yet? 

Emily x