January 2014 | Faves & Foes

Hey guys, sorry for the disappearance.... today I have my monthly Faves & Foes from my January, hope you like it and maybe you can compare some of mine to your own.

I wont do Foes every month as I'm not that critical of products, but most of the time products don't work for me so it could be an appearance every now and then.

We will start with the negativity so I can end on a good note.

                                                                           Foes

Okay, so to begin with is the L'Oreal Skin Perfection 'Velvety-soft Toner'

This stuff was a major disappointment, after trying the Eye and Lip Make-up Remover by L'Oreal I thought the rest of the Skin perfection line would be worth shouting about. However this solution does the opposite of what toner is actually sup-post to do, it dried out my face after leaving a creamy sticky residue on the skin that I couldn't help wipe off. It was not a pleasant kind of creamy either it was thick and ran down my face no matter how much I used. (a small amount, a very small amount)

The bottle, like all of the L'Oreal skin perfection collection are really annoying, the cap has no control over how much product comes out at once so yeah... I'm trying to use a small amount that doesn't mean I want the equivalent to a large amount all over my hands and running into the sink, this wasting so much product probably the equivalent to two uses. Not Impressed! Who said toner was the answer to all my questions!?

Not this one anyway! Taking recommendations!

This one may be surprising for some of you! The forever loved Body Shop, body butters?

The consistency of these, yes, is lovely! However the smell mixes really badly with your perfume and begins to smell very chemically and even when the smell is not messed with it disappears within minutes, like most Body Shop products the smell is very strong but lasts about half an hour.... max! However it makes a nice hand cream, that's as far as I'll go.

Another Body Shop Foe! 

These Born Lippy's are my arch nemesis! I've tried so many times to love these, carrying them in my bag using them under lipsticks, even as an overnight balm but they really are crap. They are very gooey and sticky and you would think this makes them moisturizing but no! it makes them slip and slide around until there gone and there is no trace of their existence as your lips are dry as sticks! DO NOT RECOMMEND! 

Unless of course you like sticky pointless lip drying pots of disappointment.

This is the Volume Million Lashes Top Coat in Glitter.....

This product was so Anti climax, I was so excited to try this expecting my lashes to look trashy, over the top and damn sparkly! This doesn't make the slightest difference to my lashes, maybe adds a little volume but that's not what its for.... its sup-post to be glittery! So this product is a farce not even close to the original Volume Million Lashes! 

Last foe of the day is Maybeline Baby lips in Pink Punch...

Now I have had this while but I was still pretty late on the bandwagon with this one however with I had never jumped on it. This product like the Born Lippy is just so disappointing! After the huge deal everybody made about them I felt as if it was going to be a staple to my make up bag but its actually been demoted to the part of my make-up draw where all of my failure products go too, along with the rest of these items! 

Now onto the positive side to my January! 

Favourites 

To begin with is the Benefit 'A lotta lovin' Palette/box

This was on sale in Debenhams and I bought it to test out some of the benefit products.

So in this little book... is a small Hoola bronzer tester, a Boing concealer, a crease-less cream shadow, three of there shimmer shadows and a travel size 'They're Real'

I love this little box, when I travel this is one of the essentials that I take with me, as it covers the more glamorous product that take up the most room! 

This is my key to Make-Up removal routine! I love this stuff, one swipe and its gone. Why waste so much money on an expensive make-up remover when this is on the market its like £5 but its always on offer in Superdrug (a British drugstore) so its like pennies! 

Who needs a salon and tweezers when these are for sale for £2.60? 

So, there are enough strips of sticky plastic for approx. 12 uses

One is in the shape of an arch and the other is curved, place on on the top of the brow, one underneath, and there are even spare rectangular ones for stray hairs! NO PAIN NO GAIN

So this is my well loved Real techniques Miracle complexion sponge, this sponge is the business! No way was I paying £15 for the Beauty Blender , stuff that! this is significantly smaller but does the job exactly the same! It needs a wash, I love this little thing so much I'm a huge fan of the Real Techniques collection.

So this is the Rimmel London Fix & Perfect PRO 

This is a great primer for me as its not silicone based! Its a creamy consistency so it feels moisturizing

on the skin rather than the dry invisible feel of a silicone primer. It actually make the difference as well, I thought the creamy factor would make the product slip of my face but no I find this makes my make-up last not amazingly longer but about 4-5 hours of extra coverage. 

  

This BB cream is lovely and feels so rewarding on the skin, it softens and moisturizes as well as a slight coverage but gives you more colour than coverage. This one specifically, is for sensitive skin and I feel the difference between the plain on and this one. the shade range is really limited though, light, medium and dark, so not very convenient 

Lastly

Beyonces' Heat is such a gorgeous scent m awful at scents but its so grown up and sweet, its so long lasting and It suits every occasion! If your passing this in a store I suggest you get a tester or spritz some on your wrist! 

Wow this was a long post, thank for reading guys 

Alice xoxo

Beauty on a budget! | £6.99 Eyeshadow Palette

Beauty on a Budget is going to be a monthly segment on my blog. This month is an amazing eyeshadow palette, I bought this palette just over a year ago from Ebay this was my go to palette before I started to venture into my Urban Decay addiction. This Palette comes with 88 eyeshadows and they are all 'neutral' colours most of them come with a shimmer but these colours are very similar to my naked palettes

I'M NOT CALLING THIS A DUPE  

So this is the palette overall                                                                       photography apologies 

As you can see the colours range from, browns, to pinks, to white/champagne to silver and lastly black! 

There is a colour for everyone! As you can see its well loved and needs a clean but there is nothing worse than a review of an untouched product! It shows it hasn't been thrown to the back of the heap and not used! This thing has served its time! I rarely use it now as I like to get my use from my more expensive palettes which is sad! The colour pay off is amazing probably as good as some high end eyeshadows. I highly recommend this palette to anybody starting off with make-up or even just looking for a cheap palette to be honest! 

Although the mirror and sponge applicators aren't much use but what can you expect for £6? 

This palette was an essential part of my make-up collection and I hope to bring it back

here is the link if you would like one

I know a very short post but I'll be back soon with a rather lengthy one! 

Alice oxox

Current Foundations Review

Right then, these are the most recent foundations I have found lurking in the depths of my make-up draw, some I love, some I loath keep reading to find out! x

From the left: YSL Youth Liberator, MAC Studio Fix Fluid, COLLECTION Lasting Perfection 

17 Photo Flawless & Least, I mean last Maybelline Fit Me 

First of all, my skin is nor oily, dry or combination its just a damn right pain in the arse! Sometimes things work, sometimes things don't. Its annoying because I could try and amazing product on the wrong day and pass it off as crap because my skin doesn't fancy it on that particular occasion. These product have been well and truley tried and tested on my hormonal skin type and these are my opinions on how these products work for me. 

YSL Youth Liberator Foundation. (£37)
The hype from the blogging world and Youtube beauty community has been unbelievable for this product. I'm usually not a YSL kinda gal, but as per usual I jumped on the band wagon and tried it. I absolutely adore the packaging of this foundation, its so glamorous and sleek. The bottle was probably one of the selling points for me! It also comes with a pump so you don't get ripped off by paying about £40 for the foundation and then more for a pump that doesn't come with the damn thing!  Now, the foundation is a beautiful consistency as its quite runny so it's easy to blend. Its probably something to do with it being serum based? However my skin is very hit and miss with this one, sometimes it glides straight over any lumps, bumps or dry patches most of the time, It Doesn't. I often have to mix some moisturizer in with this foundation to protect my face on top of the primer. This step often plays with the formula though, I've found if I don't set my make-up properly the moisturizer makes my face blotchy as the foundation obviously didn't agree with it.
However, the odd times I have no trouble with it, I've found it has a gorgeous dewy finish, so matte lovers keep well away! It stays all day (without my moisturizer) and looks as good as it did that morning. Some people like this and some people don't, this product, because of the dewy finish feels slightly damp on your face, a bit like a moisturizer in fact..... I for one love this as it makes my face feel nourished even though its not. Its the kind of feeling when you know its one your face so it doesn't completely 'sink in' This shade is B10 I may be wrong but I think this is there second lightest colour, this shade matches my skin perfectly all year round as I don't tan. Lastly I feel this foundation is light-medium coverage, although it is build-able! On those days of smoother skin it looks so radiant, its also the type were a little goes a long way... a very long way. Even though this foundation has its negatives I will probably keep it for when my skin is behaving itself because I feel its a nice luxury to have.
                                                                                                          

MAC Studio Fix Fluid. (£21?) Now everybody knows enough about this foundation but I'll ramble on for just as long...  I do love any transparent glass packaging with make-up because it just like an instant luxury regardless of the product. The mac foundation however do not come with a pump... which annoys me deeply. 
I have only used this product a hand full of times and you don't have to be a genius to work out that its to light for even my skin tone! The lovely Mac counter lady was ADAMANT this was my colour so like a stupid teenager listening to the mac counter lady I bought it. So it is hard to look past my zombie like 
complexion when wearing this but with the right colour it may not be so bad! Now, the review I've heard about this foundation say its for oily skin only and it gives a matte finish. As I said above my skin has a mind of it own but I'm the exact opposite. It moisturizes and has quite a dewy finish in fact. FAIL MAC, if that's not what they were going for but never mind I prefer it that way....
Again, like most foundations it likes to cling to a dry patch or two so beware! However mixing moisturizer with this foundation because I find it so light works! This is because I build up the coverage and only mix the moisturizer in the first layer. Mac foundations are very high coverage (once built up) so be careful of looking caked. This shade is NC15 could have done with NC20 or maybe even higher. So if this was the correct colour it would most likely be my favourite. But its not.

COLLECTION Lasting Perfection 16 Hour Foundation. (£6?)
This bad boy is amazing! The Bees Knees! Everybody knows about the concealer, but have you used the two together? No? well you should! This foundation is a little dark so I only use it on nights out, special occasions, anytime I can't look so pale I'm dying. It is a very thick consistency but the formula is so nice. For once it glides across dry patches, lumps, bumps, you wanna put something inappropriate on your face? Don't worry this stuff will glide right over that sh*t However, 16 hour is a big fat lie! I do need to touch this up maybe once/twice a day just around t-zone.
I prefer not to use powder so a setting spray doesn't work as well, maybe you could try it with a setting powder? tell me how that works out? The coverage is medium, if you use it combined with the matching concealer the coverage is almost heavy, my shade is 2, Ivory 
so yeah almost forgot about the packaging I got so excited! The packaging is that horrible stained glass, the type that is not only opaque but gets stains from everything! I hate it! Its almost as bad as the NARS packaging when it comes to cleanliness! But hey-ho who cares when its such a good product, I can do nothing but sing its praises! 

17 Photo Flawless Foundation 
I only bought this last week, but used it everyday since once I tried it. Its very creamy, so creamy your brush gets bunged up so like a scruff I have to use my hands, its almost like a BB cream in its formula! I Love This! The shade is soft ivory and its lovely, I don't look ghost like, it gives me a healthy glow and it stays all day! The packaging is pretty bog standard though! not that impressed! I've never seen this product on YouTube nor the rest of the beauty blogger community. I actually bought this on a whim, so i'm unsure of the actual price as I think its being discontinued, all of the 17 foundations were on sale in Boots - a cosmetics department store in the UK. So i got this for a staggering £2.00
Yes that's £2 Completely worth the price! Again with the dewy finish, I'm not fan of matte finishes, I would say for dry to combination skin and a very light coverage, I suppose it could be build-able but one layer feels quite heavy on the face to I wouldn't recommend building it up. Love Love Love this foundation overall! I hope you can still get your hands on it in the sale and I will definitely stock up! 

Lastly is the MAYBELLINE Fit Me Foundation. Not Impressed, The formula is really light and fluffy but this stuff is impossible to blend nicely. It is so sticky the liquid just clings to all of the flaws on your face, If you've got not then go ahead and try it but I was expecting big things from this foundations. Also the colour range is awful. This is the lightest at 110 but after this it jumps to a darker ivory so what about the girls in-between?  So yeah all I can say are negatives, the coverage is light, maybe even to light, so is the shade, but the next one is obviously going to be to dark for me. The packaging is very minimal which I do like, but who is going to buy it knowing its utter crap just for the packaging!? .
Sorry for being a negative Nelly guys but this product had to be named and shamed! 





Thanks for reading if you got this far, I would love to try out some new foundations, maybe comment below the one your using, if its any good? On the market for some more brands to slate :') 
                                                                         

Urban Decay Vice 2 Palette | Review & Swatches

Below is the Urban Decay Vice 2 Palette, one of my favourites to date. I was lucky enough to receive this for Christmas, its limited edition, however you could probably find it on amazon or another online shop. All of the Urban Decay counters in my area were completely sold out weeks before Christmas and I was told they won't be re-stocking it. If your counter says different then.. Lucky you!
This post will be a review of the palette and some swatches to show you the colour payoff and of course the pigmentation. The palette costs £42 from Boots, Fenwicks, Debenhams etc. I have seen it online on sale for £36 so I'm sure if you still want it, a sale price would still be available.

The Packaging...

Personally I adore the packaging for this palette, its glamorous, sleek and most of all, plastic! 

Compared to the packaging of other Urban Decay palettes, like Naked 1, the packaging as a high point! 

All of the newer palettes are now plastic which in my opinion was a good move, there not as flimsy and don't get as dirty as the material style palettes. The mixed purple colour and 'diamond' style type definitely represents what you will find in the palette, Wild, random an overload of sparkle! 

Please excuse the finger marks, as you can tell I haven't put the thing down! 

But yeah, packaging is great no complaints

Swatches....

This is the inside, the palette holds 20 eyeshadows, all 20 are new and unique to this palette and cannot be purchased separately. The colour payoff is amazing the same as all Urban Decay eyeshadows apart from very few but you can see for yourself.

From Bottom left

                               Dope          Habit            Toxic            Ambush         Rewind 

Personally I'm not that fond of Dope, its to light but its too yellow to be a highlighter

so I will rarely use it.

 Next is Habit (I got habit & toxic mixed up on my swatches)

This colour would be good as the inner corner shade  in combination with a sparkly brown to create a brown smokey eye as its light enough to open the eye. 

Toxic is a very rose gold colour and a beautiful highlight when used lightly. However this colour would look far more glamorous on darker skin tones as the name is well fitted when I apply to much.

Afterwards is Ambush, one of my favourites from the whole palette its a bronzed brown with some added glitters, its perfect for when you want something sparkly but subtle.

Rewind is your average matte brown. A darker version of Habit but a slightly nicer tone. Habit is very muted, where as Rewind is perfect for a wash of colour but who wants a matte was off colour with Urban Decay?

                                   Radar       Damaged       Voodoo    Betrayal      Derailed  

Radar is similar to Ambush in the bronzed brown department however Radar has a slight orange tint to it as well as it begin overloaded with glitter. I pat this on top of a matte colour like Rewind to give a bit of.. Pzazz.

Damaged is a metallic green colour and its beautiful! In the pan its very emerald like but on the lid it has a real silver tone, maybe you could blend it out with a strong silver. 

My favourite of this row, Voodoo is a vibrant purple glitter, quite dark, it would definitely be the statement to your face of make up. 

Betrayal is quite a lilac shade of purple on the lid but in the pan looks a lot darker. Again I feel the same way about this colour as I previously said about Toxic. I not a fan of lights and pastels for make-up

Lastly Derailed, oppose to the bronzed browns Derailed has a metallic silver undertone. This is one of my most used colours, considering I've only had the palette a week!

                               Prank          Madness          Strike            Stash            Poison

This is probably the most adventurous part of the palette 

Prank is like a sparkly navy blue, on the eyelid it could be mistaken for black when generously applied not quite as harsh though. It would maybe be good idea if black was too dark for your liking?

Madness is more like a darker royal blue, again with quite a shimmer. Personally I would use this colour as anything darker is slightly harsh for my skin tone. 

Strike is a beautiful yellow gold, probably the most glamorous colour in the palette, beautiful again as a highlight on a more tanned skin tone, even on somebody as pale as myself with a darker foundation. 

Stash in my opinion would be amazing paired with strike. It would be a very dramatic eye look in need of a nude lip! There are very similar shades to this within the naked palettes, a shimmery dark brown is needed in every palette! 

Lastly Poison, its almost like a muted black combine with glitter but on swatch the payoff is more like a charcoal grey. Personally I prefer that the payoff isn't so dark as the charcoal colour is less coarse.

                                 Smoke Out      Lovesick   Shellshock    Coax       X-rated

Smoke Out is a rather dark matte black with some red and purple glitters in sorry that its not quite showing up on the photo, its a rather strange shade as it mixes matte and shimmer together. 

Lovesick is the same but with silver glitter, Lovesick however is not matte. 

Shell shock is a very strong opaque silver this shade stands out to me the most as its the brightest in the whole palette! On the lid it shows true to pan however because its so opaque its quite hard to blend. 

Next is Coax, in the pan looks like a rose gold pink but then on the lid appears more like a sparkly barbie pink, I'm not fond of these two pink shades.

X-rated is a very bright pink but is not true to colour when I tried it, as you can see the payoff isn't great. Personally its too girly for me.

So yeah thats my thoughts on the Vice 2 Hope you enjoyed....

Alice oxox