Quickie Review and LOTD: Loreal Paris Colour Riche eyeshadow quad in Trésors Cachés

Curiosity killed the cat… Having misplaced a lovely khaki eyeshadow my friend Wendy sent me, I went searching in Boots for something similar and picked up this little quad. I’ve barely tried any L’oreal products at all but somehow this found its way into my grubby mitts.

 

 

 

The quad is slim and compact – it’ll fit easily in your makeup bag. It feels very light – no heft to it at all really - and doesn't have a mirror, but I always carry one with me regardless so not a problem in my opinion.

 

The khaki colour was pretty much what I was looking for!  It didn’t have the olive sheen of the one I’d lost and was looking to replace, but I liked the shade and I  thought I could probably get away with it for work. The blackened cranberry colour looked interestingly vampy too. The black and gold colours I was less impressed with, but as this little quad was so compact I didn’t mind two colours I wasn’t overly impressed with.

Eyes: Loreal Trésors Cachés quad, just over primer.
Cheeks: Borjouis Delice de Poudre bronzer. Sleek Suede
Lips: L’Oreal Colour RIche Collection Privee Lipstick in Cheryl: Barely Greige

 

 

 

I don’t really know what to say about this quad… I kind of don’t have any strong feelings about it either way. The khaki and gold colours look lovely layered together, and the cranberry shade either has the bonus or the downside of blending out to a reddish brown, depending on your preference. Applied over a black base or brown base it retains its cranberry-ness, and is a decent colour to put in the crease if you're wearing a rosy shade on your lids. The charcoal colour is nothing to write home about at all. The texture of the whole set is pretty decent but again, nothing to write home about. "Trésors Cachés" translates into "Hidden Treasures" and for me that's not really true. "Alright for Work, Not The Worst" isn't such a catchy name really though, is it?

 

I have nothing negative to say about this palette, but I can’t find anything overly positive to say about it either. Do you ever feel that way?

L’Oreal Colour Riche Quads are £7.99 from Boots.

Quickie Review: Missha Signature Wrinkle Filler BB cream

I know. ‘Wrinkle Filler’ isn’t something I really want to see on my products at the ripe old age of 26, but bear with me. I got a sample of this lovely stuff with an order a while ago and liked it so much I promptly ordered a full size.

 

 

 

Look at that bad boy! It’s so shiny, and lo and behold, a sodding pump! Halleloo. I didn’t take a comparison shot, but this thing is massive – it’s about twice the size of a bottle of Revlon Colorstay, for example. The packaging seems to be the same style throughout the whole of the Missha Signature line. It looks metallic, but it’s plastic and is actually very light feeling. It looks more expensive than it feels, which is initially disappointing but considering the size, probably a good thing!

 

The box claims all sort of gumph – the white part of the formula claims to fill in your wrinkles and there’s also a load of yak about this foundation containing ‘fullerenes,’ which are a type of  structure  that won a Nobel Prize. I asked my boyfriend, who is a boffin extraordinaire, and wasn’t really listening to his explanation but he couldn’t see why they would have any benefit to your skin. I always take any science, pseudo or no, on beauty products with a huge, huge pinch of salt but seeing the words 'Nobel Prize' on my foundation did make me chuckle.

 

 

As you can see, this does come out not mixed - I would advise mixing it before applying it! A word of warning with this foundation, it’s pale. It’s also, like many Asian BB Creams, slightly grey toned. I found on application I look a little off, but leave it for  around 15 minutes or so, and then it’s all good. I got this in shade 21, which as far as I can tell is the palest it comes in and I can only find two more shades, so if you’re not relatively pale you’ll struggle to find a match. Luckily samples are cheap and easy to come by on eBay.

 

 

 

I think you can tell which side is the before and after, no? This is just the BB cream alone, no base, concealer or powder. I’m really happy with the coverage of this and I’ve just been wearing it alone most days – for work, I really don’t care about a little under-eye darkness or small blemishes! One pump will do your whole face - if I’m having a horrible skin day I may use a little extra over the more red areas of my face, but it still doesn’t cake or look heavy. It feels very lightweight on the face for the amount of coverage it gives. I prefer to apply this with my fingers as it’s a very creamy texture and it's easier than applying it with a brush. It's a lovely finish - it's not dewy and it's not totally flat. With the texture of this, I find it looks too matte if you powder over the top, but that’s my personal preference.

My favourite thing about this is how it wears – unlike UK ‘BB creams’ that wear for about two seconds, even on my dry skin,  this wears *really* well. I do prefer to use a setting spray rather than a powder if I need this to wear for a bit longer – if I do that, it’ll get me through my working day. If not, it’ll see me through until about 3.00pm which isn’t bad at all! I do find that it starts to separate slightly after that length of time, but that’s a problem I’m having with a *lot* of foundations at the moment (even ones that are normally fine on me, for reasons I can’t figure out yet) so take that as you will.   If you like an SPF in your foundation, this one boasts SPF37 as well.

 

 

As for the wrinkle filling claims? I have some fine lines but I wouldn’t say this improved them any. It doesn’t cake under my eyes where I have fine lines and doesn’t gather in my laughter lines, so that’ll do for me. I do think due to the light texture and natural finish of this foundation that it would play well with a lot of more mature skin, though. The one bad thing about this (if you can find a match and don’t mind massive packaging, that is) is the scent. It’s a fake, powdery rose sort of scent and it’s not subtle. Luckily it fades quite quickly but it’s not pleasant on application. Other than that, it’s a total winner. I love this BB cream!

 

 

This cost me just under £15 for 44 grams with free shipping from eBay. If you can wait for the shipping, I would recommending getting your Korean beauty products from eBay as most sellers will add a good amount of free samples.

Holy Crap: Topshop Velvet Lips in Raven

When I saw this in Topshop yesterday I had the biggest makeupgasm I’ve had for a VERY long time. I’m a huge fan of ‘velvet’ lip products, and am super happy brands like MUA, Sleek and drugstore brands over the world are now starting to carry this type of formula. But this, dear friends, is something a little special. This velvet lipstick is BLACK.

HOLY SHIT, IT’S BLACK. Most people would never reach for a black lipstick in their lives, but as a used-to-be goth and still a person-mostly-in-black, a black lipstick in this formula is a huge sodding deal. I owed it to teenage me to have this lipstick. Black is such an unforgiving shade when it comes to formulas, and sadly most blacks are too creamy and don’t wear well or aren’t black enough. Liquid and gel liners can crack on the lips and often black eye pencils are either too smudgy or too hard to drag across your entire lip. Enter Topshop ‘Raven’:

 

OH GOD IT’S SO BLACK. And is shot through with just the right amount of iridescence to make it not look super flat. Guys, I’m so in love. If you’re not familiar with this type of product, it’s a cream in the tube and applies opawuely, drying to a super-long wearing matte finish. As expected, it’s dry but not drying, and doesn’t smudge or flake once set. I haven’t worn it long enough to comment thoroughly on it’s wear time, but if it’s anything like any of the brands that do this formula, it basically won’t budge unless you’re eating something really oily. I’ll do a look using this soon, but I was too excited to share!

You can get ‘Raven’ for £10 at topshop.com

Did I mention it’s black?!

Quickie Review and LOTDs: Illamasqua Fatale Palette

Initially I wasn’t drawn to this palette at all, until I saw Karla Powell use it in a look on a models lips and had to have it! I’ve never tried a pressed eyeshadow from Illamasqua that wasn’t matte so didn’t really know what to expect. My experiences with the matte shades they make have varied from ‘meh’ to ‘pretty damn good,’ so I was interested to check out the shimmery shades and see what the payoff was like in real life – the moving swatch on the website made them look like the pigmentation was great!

L-R, swatched on bare skin:

Bronx : bronzed gold
Ensnare: sultry berry shimmer
Mystify: chestnut brown
Charm: seductive violet shimmer

The shade names are from the Illamasqua website. Apart from Ensnare, which in my opinion is much too cool to be called chestnut, these are pretty accurate descriptions. I’m happy to report that these indeed are pretty damn good. I’d venture to say excellent, actually. They feel very smooth and lightweight, and with the possible exception of Charm, which is a *little* sheerer than the others, they all give you really rich colour in one stroke. They’re not unique colours by any means, but the quality is certainly there. While I do prefer a mix of matte and shimmery shades in my palette, these aren’t so shimmery they make you look like a glitter ball and Mystify is dark enough to help give some definition even with the sheen it has.

Let’s see it on the old mug, shall we?

Bitchface ahoy

Eyes: Illamasqua Ensnare, Mystify and Charm, with Illamasqua loose pigment in Beguile in corner of lids.
Cheeks: Etude House Minnie Touch Highlight, MUA Blush in shade 2 (I think, label worn off), Too Faced chocolate bronzer
Lips: MAC Magenta, Illamasqua Boost

Ensnare and Charm actually work really well together – I’d never really have though to pair a cranberry and a light violet colour together but I think it’s a pretty combination. You can see on the lower lashline that the grey-taupe of Mystify is nice with Charm as well. I’ll have to play with those two together again soon.

When I ordered this palette, I also got Boost lipgloss to go with it. It’s pretty sheer and the applicator is sadly terrible, but my gosh, it looks beautiful over hot pinks and magentas!

Eyes: Illamasqua Bronx and Mystify
Cheeks: MAC Margin
Lips: e.l.f Studio matte lipstick in Coral, Illamasqua Sheer Lipgloss in Provoke

A simpler combination, but one that I really like with my colouring. I don’t normally care about wearing colours that make my eyes ‘pop’ or not, but I do really like this pairing with my blue eyes

Pretty colours, no?  I think this palette would suit a decent range of skintones and that they all actually work very nicely together as well as. The warm tones are something I’ve seen on lots of celebrities at the moment and work well as part of a Christmas collection.

I thought this palette was pretty pricey – you get 6 grams for £34. It seems a lot, but compared to something like one of the little baked Chanel quads which is around £37 for 1.2g, it’s actually not that bad for something on the higher end of the scale. Even so, I probably wouldn’t have purchased this palette without my Illamasqua pro discount due to the price. I’m really glad I went for it though - the formula is lovely, the colours are on-trend and I just think it’s a beautiful little palette. A perfect treat for a beauty lover this Christmas!

If you’re up for putting this lovely bit of stuff on your face, you can get it at www.Illamasqua.com.

First Impressions: LoveMeBeauty Box

I finally succumbed to a beauty box. I know most people tend to moan about them and to be honest, that's part of the reason why I subscribed - I love a good moan! I went with the LoveMeBeauty box which is £10 a month plus P&P.
The idea with LoveMeBeauty is that you get a choice of  'menus'  or 'mystery' box per month. With the menus, you can see the exact items you'll be getting, and with the mystery box, it's obviously a mystery!

You get 4-5 items in each box, with ' 1 to 2 star products and 3 travel sized samples.'  This month's menu had items from Lord and Berry, Models Own and Jelly Pong Pong but as it was my first go, I wanted to see what the mystery box had in store!

The box is simply presented – plain cardboard box with pink tissue paper and squigglies (real word) inside. I like that as there’s no guff and it’s easy to recycle. There was no descriptive card as I chose the mystery option. I’m not sure how much of a ‘mystery’ this option is though, as a couple of the items I got were on the menus that you could choose this month. Here’s what I got.

Clockwise from top left:

Organic Surge Gentle Cleansing Lotion £5.99

This is rosemary and lemon scented, and I won’t lie, it’s a weird smell. Not gross, but odd. However, that aside, I really like this! I love a nice creamy cleanser and this works really well – like all cream cleansers it’s a bit of a pain in the butt to take mascara off with the rest of my skin likes this a lot so far. The main ingredients are water and glycerin, and then a bunch of stuff that looks to be of a lemony origin, so seemingly no nasties to my untrained eye. I think this is my favourite item in the box!

Melvita Fresh Moisturising Body Milk

Meh. This is a pleasantly rose-scented body lotion, I suppose, but thin creams don’t do anything for me. It’s better than nothing but I prefer something a bit more robust, especially on my legs. This is my least favourite item in the box but I’ll keep it in my desk drawer for topping up my arms during the day.

Le Soin Purifiant Absolution Mask

I found this on Amazon as a 50ml instead of a 40ml for £24.00, so decent little item here for your box money. This is where having a card telling you about the products would be handy because this is all in French, and my French basically consists of talking about pamplemousse and ordering beer, so not helpful here! I worked out that it was a purifying mask. I tried it last night and it seems a little thin compared to a lot of facemasks I’ve tried. I didn’t really feel it did anything to be honest but hard to judge just from one go.

 

Anatomicals Don't Clean It Woman, Scrub It Body Scrub £3.60

What the hell kind of name is this? MEN USE SCRUBS TOO, YEAH? The back has some jokey blurb about ‘just like your kitchen floor’, your body needs scrubbing too. Um. Okay?  It’s not quite as gritty as I would like, but it does the job well enough and has a nice grapefruit scent so I’ll be using this up, despite (hopefully ironic) vaguely sexist branding. This retails for around £4, and I found it on various retailers including ASOS.

 

Jelly Pong Pong 2-in-1 Eyeliner & Shadow in Bronze £10.50

No name, but it's a deep, warm shimmery bronze. It's one of those colours that's nothing overly special, but I really quite like it. It has nice pigmentation on one stroke, smudges out quite nicely so would make a nice base, and yet isn't too soft to apply just as a liner. This has gone in my daily makeup bag for work and looks nice with blue eyes. Jelly Pong Pong are selling these for £10.50, which I think is a little pricey.

 

Well… I think I liked this box enough to try next month and see if I’ll carry on with it. I think I got my money’s worth with this one for sure – I really like the cleanser and the eye pencil is nice too. I’ll pick one the of menu items next month to see how that goes.

Do you have a box subscription? Which is your favourite?

Quickie Review and LOTD: e.l.f Studio blush in Gotta Glow

e.l.f recently had one of their nifty 50% office sale (I picked up some of my favourite brushes which you can see here) and I decided to throw ‘Gotta Glow’ into my basket to see what all the fuss was about. Famed for being an inexpensive dupe for NARS Albatross which I was drooling over instore with Rachael recently, I was really excited to try it out. I love golden highlighters, and the ones I had before this were either a really warm, yellow gold or more of a champagne-gold, and this one is more of a white-gold.

 

 

You can really see where the NARS comparisons come in! The compact had a decent heft to it and doesn’t feel cheap. The small mirror is a little pointless in my opinion – I wish it took up the whole lid, but then I do like that you can see the product without opening the compact.

 

 

 

I’d click to enlarge those photos and see the product close up, but as you can see, it’s actually a really lovely and subtle highlighter! I was initially worried at first that it would be too ashy or chalky on the skin it kicks up a lot of powder when you swirl your brush in the pan, but luckily that didn’t translate on my cheek. I’ll hazard a guess you don’t get that with the NARS version but I don’t have a problem with it really, especially for the price point. It also builds quite nicely into a stronger highlight if you want to double it up on the inner corner of the eye.

All in all – a lovely highlighter and a lovely bargain! I’m tempted to try some more of e.l.f’s blush range if they’re all this pretty– any recommendations?

The studio blushes cost £3.50 from eyeslipsface.co.uk

Quickie Review and LOTD: MAC Nocturnals Green & Teal Pigment and Glitter Set

I normally don’t even bother to look at MAC’s holiday sets, but this one really caught my eye as I’ve wanted several of the colours for a long time. This is a pigments and glitter set including Reflects Gold glitter, Old Gold pigment, 3D Gold glitter, Deep Blue Green pigment and Just Before Dawn Pigment. Reflects Gold is part of the permanent Pro range, Old Gold and Deep Blue Green are part of the permanent core range, 3D Gold isn’t permanent as far as I can tell but gets released with various collections and is easy to find elsewhere online. Just Before Dawn is limited Edition.

I’ve tried MAC glitter before but never the pigments so I was excited to have a play around. These are in smaller pots than than usual with a gold and white colour scheme on the lid which is also printed on the box they came in as well. I think the presentation of these vials is really chic for a winter collection and certainly much more pleasing on the eye than plain old black. The set comes in a glossy black box with the same white-and-gold motif around the edge, but it was so shiny I gave up trying to capture it, to be honest!

 

Pigments over bare skin, glitters with Lit Cosmetics glitter base.

L-R: Relfects Gold (white glitter with gold sheen that looks champagne in some lights, as you can see here) , Old Gold (bright gold with an olive sheen), Deep Blue Green (blackened teal), Just Before Dawn (deep grey-taupe), 3D Gold (almost chartreuse holographic gold).

 

Old Gold on the lips with Inglot Duraline), 3D Gold on the lips with Lit Cosmetics glitter base. Here you can really see the greenish tone that Old Gold has and how vibrant 3D gold looks! Apparently 3D Gold isn’t lip safe, but personally I don’t care.

Just Before Dawn all over the lid and lower lashline with Deep Blue Green in the outer V. Reflects Gold in the inner corner and Old Gold and Deep Blue Green to line.

Reflects Gold on the lid.

Just Before Dawn in the crease and on lower lashline, Deep Blue Green on the upper lashline.

Overall, I really love this set! I think pigments work well together and that the glitters are a really fun addition that work with the pigments nicely too. 3D Gold might be a bit much for some, (especially as I’m sure it’s not technically eye or lip safe) but Reflects Gold is a really nice, “subtle” glitter than I think most people could get use out of. Personally the stand out for me is actually Just Before Dawn - I love the deep grey look it has and just think it’s a really sexy colour. I’m excited to work out what fun things I can do with 3D Gold as well as I’m a huge fan of the 3D silver glitter! I do find the name of the set odd – there’s not a true green shade in here at all and there are two gold shades? 

I was concerned the vials would be too small to get a brush into as they’re  slim openings on the jars, but I managed to get my application and blending brushes into the top, and can just about use the lids to swirl the excess products away. It’s not the easiest packaging to use but it’s not the worst, and there’s also a small plug on top of the opening to keep things a bit neater which is nice.

The set costs £25.50 from maccosmetics.co.uk. With one pigment from MAC costing £17 for 0.15 ounces (these pigments are 0.09 ounces or 0.14 ounces for the glitter)  you’re getting a pretty decent amount of quality product for your money. For a makeup lover, I think this is a really nicely presented gift!

 

 

Do you like MAC pigments? What do you have your eye on from this years holiday collection?