I'm finally feeling motivated and ready to return to blogging. In the midst of a house move, a new job and way too much Netflix I kind of lost the beauty blogging bug but now I'm ready to start over.
In the few months since my last post I have obviously bought way too much to choose one particular thing to blog about so I've picked just a few of the things I've been using the most.
1. Maybelline SuperStay Better Skin foundation
I'm not 100% sure what to say about this one. First of all I'll start by saying it doesn't make your skin look any healthier in 3 weeks as it claims on the bottle.I used it pretty much everyday for over three weeks and haven't seen any change at all. Another negative here but one that could maybe have been avoided, the colour is pretty dark with a bit too much of an orange finish for my liking. I bought this online and chose Ivory assuming that it would be light and not at all orange as you'd expect Ivory to be especially judging from the picture on the website, definitely not the case! It's probably about time for some positives here, most days this does even out my skin very well and it definitely lasts. If I'm having a bad skin day though this does cling to dry patches because it blends to an almost powder like finish. Overall it's a love/hate relationship, if you try this I'd recommend a good moisturiser beforehand and also to use your fingers to blend rather than a brush or sponge as personally I've found this works a lot better.
2. Maybelline Matte Maker
This one was bought on a whim due to the absolute bargain price of £3.99 in Superdrug a few weeks ago, most definitely worth that price and more! Firstly I'm happy that I have finally found a powder light enough, even when I've gone a shade or two lighter than my foundation in the past it's always seemed to make my skin darker but not this one. It's very light on the skin, gives an absolutely perfect finish and keeps shine at bay hours longer than other powders I've tried. I'd say I put my make-up on for work at about half 6 and I don't usually feel the need to top up until about half 3, that's 9 hours of a perfectly matte complexion even in this lovely warm weather we're having right now. I have no idea if it's still on offer or not but either way I'd definitely recommend this one. I got shade number 10 which is Classic Ivory.
3. Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm
I was a massive fan of the original Revlon Just Bitten Kissable balm stains and have pretty much every colour so I was so excited when I read about the matte and gloss releases back in January. I finally got round to trying them out and thought I'd start with matte because matte lips have been one of my favourite things recently. My go-to shade of lipstick is always red so I went for shade number 240 which is Striking. It's a nice bright orange based red, perfect for summer and I'd imagine this to be very flattering on every skintone. The application is just as easy as the original balm stains, the matte doesn't feel at all drying. These don't last quite as well as the original balm stains but it can definitely still stand up to a fair few cocktails. Once I've got a bit more free time on my hands I'll definitely be buying more colours and giving the gloss ones a go.
4. MUA Lipstick
I love lipstick and I love a bargain even more so how I've never tried MUAs £1 lipsticks is a mystery to me. When I had my job interview a few months ago I wanted a muted colour lipstick as all I had was bright colours and I didn't want to be OTT. I'm not a fan of really pale nude lips so when I saw shade 11 I knew I'd found 'The One'. It's a deeper colour but still nude, you almost can't tell that you're wearing lipstick but it just finishes off an everyday look perfectly. I can't really fault the formula for £1 either, it goes on smooth and feels moisturising. It's not the most long lasting of lipsticks but for £1 I don't think you can complain. Think I might be picking up a few more of these little bargains on my next Superdrug trip.
5. Lipstick by H&M
Placing their beauty products right by the till is just plain unfair! There I was halfway through a long queue waiting to buy my dress and I got distracted by all the pretty sparkly things shining in my eye, so off I go leaving the queue having wasted 10 minutes of my life. I'd never actually tried any H&M beauty products prior to this, I was buying a dress for a night out and in my head I was picturing the perfect make-up look; just a little bit of eyeliner with a deep reddy-orange lip. Lo and behold the perfectly imagined colour was there staring me right in the face. The shade is called Down Town, the bullet looks like it would be an almost brown colour but on the lips it's a very deep red with slight orange undertones. While the shade was perfect the formula kind of isn't, the application is tricky and there's not way you could get away without using a lip liner. There's also a slight problem of how unevenly this wears off. Overall not quite as impressed as I'd hoped but it really is the perfect deep red shade if you're patient with the application and regular touch-ups.
6. Maybelline ColourSensational Lip Liner
As I've said a thousand times throughout this blog and probably throughout this post, a red lip is my favourite thing in the world! I was on the hunt for a new red lip liner and came across this one, I was in a rush so did a quick test to see the colour and grabbed it. Once I got home and tried it out I couldn't believe how good a choice I'd just made. I don't think I've ever had a lip liner that goes on as smoothly as this one does, it almost has the texture of a kohl liner but still gives a nice sharp line. I'm running out of a few other colours of liner and this brand is the only one I will be replacing them with.
So that's that. Hopefully I won't leave it so long between posts next time. In the meantime I'm off to read all of your wonderful blogs and see just what I've been missing in the beauty blogging world.
