April Favourites

Clockwise from top left:

Bobbi Brown Eyeshadow in Heather Mauve – I’ve been wearing this product a ton this month. It’s not actually a mega stellar product in itself, more that it’s suited my rushed makeup routine, which is to say, it’s sheer, neutral and has a little shimmer, so it’s dead easy to apply on the tube! It’s a grey-taupe with slight purple undertone, so it goes with quite a lot of lip and cheek colours, and it’s great to just throw in my bag.

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer – A favourite in the blogging community for quite some time now, and it’s easy to see why. It does stay put for ages, it’s not cakey, and it’s dead cheap at around a fiver. This month, for reasons unknown, I’ve had some god-awful acne on my chin and this has taken away any redness whatsoever. And I mean really, really awful spots, they were huge!

Soap and Glory Bright Here, Bright Now – Part illuminator, part primer, part moisturiser. I don’t buy the lifting and firming claims whatsoever, but it keeps my BB cream sticking around a bit longer and adds a really subtle glow. A bit of an odd products but I really like it.

Crown Brush C315-A Soft Taklon Foundation – I won’t like to you folks, I bought this because it looked cool, and I wanted it. As a foundation brush, its actually pretty great. It covers large areas quickly and it’s very thin, so great for contouring with cream or liquid products.

Crown C250-1 Taklon Liner – This is just a really basic, thin liner brush, but I love it. I also have the C250-2, which is the next size up. The bristles are well shaped, it’s synthetic and it’s just the right length to allow for nice fluidity of movement. What more for you want for £1.69?

Bourjois Delice de Poudre in 52 – I have a review of this here, so I won’t say too much about it. Subtle, pretty, smells nice, good price.

ProCharts – £12.99 for 35 charts. I’ve never used actual makeup for face charts before, I’ve just done rough sketches. Learning to use these is a bit of a pain, but I can tell already they’re going to help me so much when planning for shoots.

MAC Sheen Supreme in Korean Candy – I wanted this for ages and it just fell into my basket. Everyone knows I love the Sheen Supremes, I basically just want them all. This particular beauty is a punchy orange-red and I luffs it.

 

What have you been loving this month?

Quickie Review and Swatches: Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder in 51 and 52

I don’t really ‘do’ bronzer, dear readers. I was a grotty nasty little mini-goth as a teenager and didn’t even buy a blusher until I was nineteen! I started dying my hair red around 20, and got it into my head that red heads Must Not Have A Tan Whatsoever. Now that I know how to apply makeup I know that a little bronzer does not mean you’re going to look like you’re off Jersey Shore, and the glowing reviews of my fellow bloggers (and a special offer in Superdrug) led me to pick up these bad boys.

These bronzers are famous for looking – and smelling!- like chocolate. I have to say I really like how these are presented. The palettes are cardboard but close with a magnet and seem really sturdy. As for the scent, it’s really sweet and I like it a lot – it smells more coconutty or fruity than straight-up chocolate to me though. Bourjois have also brought out a more shimmery version of the chocolate bronzer and a white chocolate highlighting powder as well, but they’re not available in store in the UK anymore :(

The powder comes in two shades, Peaux Claires/Medians no 51 (left) and Peaux mates/hâlées no 52 (right).  My French basically consists of pointing and saying ‘merci,’ but I believe 51 is for lighter skins and 52 is meant for a slightly darker skin. If anyone can translate better for me feel free!

51, left, 52, right.

When swatched, no 51 looks more golden. 52 has more noticable shimmer particles in it (click to embiggen and you’ll see them) and is a touch darker darker, with a less yellow undertone. I was slightly concerned that 51 would look too orange on my skin, and that 52 might be too dark. Eeek! I’m sure there are seasoned bronzer wearers out there laughing at me right now!

Here I am with no bronzer, blush, or highlighter – just some BB cream which I set with translucent powder.

Here I am wearing shade 51 – on forehead, cheeks, centre of nose, etc. This was the shade I was worried about look mega orange on me. I’m still not sure it’s quite right but I don’t think it’s horrible – it looks pretty natural and subtle. I obviously didn’t go overboard on the application but I still think on me, this shade makes it fairly obvious I have bronzer on.

Here I am wearing shade no 52. I was concerned about this one perhaps being too sparkly, but I don’t see any glitter particles on my cheeks at all. I prefer this shade on me to shade 51 and it looks more like I do when I tan – it’s very natural and certainly my favourite of the two. I don’t notice the shimmer particles on my skin at all which is a good thing, but neither shade looks totally flat matte, which I also like.

I really like applying these with the Real Techniques Blush Brush – the big egg shape basically blends that shit out for you with no effort whatsoever! How do you feel about bronzer? What’s your favourite?

First Impressions: Bourjois Je T’aime Vintage/Little Round Pot Blusher in Rose d’Or

Apart from a recent ill-fated Healthy Mix purchase, my last Bourjois buy was way back in my first or second year of uni, when I like their clear blue minty gloss. For some reason a special offer piqued my interest recently and I picked up a few things, including this adorable looking little blush. It’s Bourjois’ 150th anniversary this year, and they’ve packaged three of their best-selling shades in adorable 1930’s style packaging. These colours are being referred to  as ‘Je T’aime Vintage Blushes’ but they’re same Little Round Pot ones as they normally have out.

I’m fascinated with history of makeup brands – cue nerdiness! - and the history of Bourjois is really interesting. Like most very old makeup brands, the creator Alexandre Napoleon Bourjois started out making stage makeup – day to day, normal people didn’t wear much or any makeup and it was mainly produced for actors. For a long time, if you wore rouge you were considered a whore! Blush, however, was one of the first products Bourjois made and it’s kind of cool that blushers are still such a key part of the brand today! I think some of the shades have been around for more than 100 years which to me is pretty darn cool.

Rather annoyingly the special packaging is just a sticker, which I think is a bit of a cop-out for your anniversary, Bourjois, but hey, that’s just me! It’s still adorable though and I will admit it’s what attracted me to product.

It comes with an adorable looking but useless brush – it’s very stiff, hard to hold and grabs way too much product. Only use if you want to look like an irritated, stripy clown. I don’t know why companies still do this.

I’ve not used these blushers for a long, long time – I remember my housemate used to have lots of them. They always gave her a lovely glow and never looked too much with her crazy hair colours, so I was expecting something sheer and pretty – your typical baked blusher, really. I don’t own NARS Orgasm but it this seems to be that type of shade – a bright pink with gold sheen. It’s actually pretty pigmented when you swipe it – more so than I was expecting.

On the skin, it’s just what I wanted. Subtle and pretty with a nice but not too disco-ball of a glow. It’s so small and compact it’s going straight into my everyday makeup bag – the brush, however, is going in the bin!