Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The brush that changed my (makeup) life!


Everyone always raves about MAC brushes on just about every blog, tutorial and video. Unfortunately, these little babies do get a little on the expensive side. This post is just a quick review on my favorite brush from MAC.

It’s the MAC 213 brush.

I bought this brush when I was in high school and I had just started expanding my makeup collection. That was 4 years ago. Today, my brush looks every bit as good as they day I bought it. I have used it almost every single time I put on my eye shadow—whether it was a casual hangout or an important presentation—and washed it every now and then to keep it clean. I can assure you, this brush is an investment.

It is a flat brush, with a rounded top, so every angle of the brush can be used for a different function. The 213 brush is great for applying eye shadow all over lid, for definition in the crease and for highlighting under the brow. I sometimes even pull some of my crease color using the tip of my brush to my lower lashes about halfway to the inner corner for a softer defined look (rather than using eyeliner).
This is definitely my favorite brush and I have gotten just so attached to it, I’m used to using it every day!

MAC brushes, especially this one, are definitely investments.

Have you tried this brush before? What do you think of it?
What is your favorite makeup brush?

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Foundation magic!


Eureka! I have made an amazing discovery!

Ladies, my long search for the perfect foundation ends here.

Allow me to explain:

After years of searching for a good foundation that had the right consistency, coverage, color, staying power and price, I was ready to give up and accept a life of obvious bad skin… Until I found this product.  I have tried various low end and high end foundations; cream, liquid and powder, with no avail. Many broke me out, did not have enough coverage, or did not match my skin tone. But today, I had my makeup since morning and I just got home (it’s evening) and I—for the first time in my life—received compliments about my skin endlessly. Some people who have seen me before honestly thought that my acne problem had gotten slightly better.

The foundation which I am referring to is affordable, had great coverage, stayed on all day, and even smelled AMAZING!

It’s ‘Healthy Mix’ by Bourjois.



This foundation is not new whatsoever, but it had made its way into one of the most favored foundations worldwide. It won a bunch of awards last year. Not surprising; even after a day I thought it was a star!
It claims to contain 4 radiance-boosting fruits which are apricot, melon, apple and ginger. It does boost your radiance, which is not necessarily a bad thing. If you have combination to oily skin like me, then you probably prefer a matte finish. But this foundation will not ever come across as oily.

If you do suffer from extremely oily skin, I still recommend this, but be sure to set your foundation with a mattifying powder. Occasionally, throughout the day, I did have to blot and touch up with a compact, but this happened only a couple of times for my nose.

All in all, I love this foundation! It comes in a great selection of shades too! I’m number 56 Light Bronze, and it just looks spot on for my skin tone!

Have you ever tried this foundation? What do you think?

Nail colors of Fall/Winter 2011!


So since fall is coming up I’ve been eyeing some nail colors that I thought were absolutely gorgeous for the season. Having been inspired by the NY Fashion week for Autumn/Winter 2011, I scouted out some of the colors used on the runway and found a nail lacquer to match the trend!

            The first color I found absolutely gorgeous is jade, which signifies a big comeback for the jewel tones this season. This MAC nail lacquer in ‘Jade Dragon’ is absolutely gorgeous and perfect for the season:

A more affordable recommendation would be ‘Moody Model’ by H&M. This color is not quite like the MAC shade in the sparkliness or vibrancy of the color, but is beautiful and edgy nonetheless and I will personally have this on most days for the rest of this year:

The next color that is perfect for fall would be a deep burgundy or crimson color. I recommend New York Color’s ‘Wing it wine crème’ (color number 121A) which is a shade I have been loyal to for quite some time now. It does go on a little bit sheer on first application, but is opaque on the second coat. It is a long wearing nail polish, so once you have your top coat on don’t expect this beauty to budge for the next few days!

Another color that is an absolute must-have when it comes to jewel tones is deep purple. Now, although I haven’t really bought any deep purple nail polishes in the past, I think I will definitely be getting into this trend this season and I owe it all to this amazing (and amazingly affordable) color by Revlon! It’s called ‘Plum Night’ and I think I should seriously try to get my hands on this color or something a lot like it!


If this color looks familiar, it’s probably because it is a lot like OPI’s ‘Lincoln park after dark’.
Dark blue is one of those colors that I am no stranger to! I absolutely love blues and especially on my toes. When it’s summer I’ll rock a lighter, almost baby blue hue, but this winter it’s all about going dark! This shade—also by MAC—is absolutely gorgeous! It’s ‘biker blue’ and I think this color is to die for! It has a slight shimmer which comes across beautifully on the nails.

If ever a good time to wear black it would be this season! This is a nail color that is always found in my makeup bag during the winter season because it can make any outfit that much edgier. The one I have been using religiously is OPI’s ‘Black Onyx’:

An all time favorite fall color of mine is… WHITE! I know it goes totally against what I’ve been saying this entire post with the going darker for the colder seasons, but white is one of those colors that I think are a great statement nail color for any season. Make sure to get a glossy version though, or else your nails will look sloppy, as if you’ve painted them with corrector ink!

What are some of your favorite nail colors for the upcoming season?

Sunday, August 28, 2011

GOSH Haul + Review


 Since I absolutely love GOSH cosmetics, I thought I would do a haul on some products I got recently from there. I picked up the new Velvet Touch Foundation Primer Cream. I do have the old one, which is a clear primer gel, and it worked amazingly, but the new one was a cream, and was more moisturizing, so I thought I would try it out.

I swatched it on my hand and it felt really nice. And although it claimed to have no perfume, it has a slight scent, which disappears the second you apply it on your face. It contains organic calendula oil, which I assume to be the moisturizing ingredient in this primer. I was totally in love with the GOSH primer gel and decided I would try this out. It is incredibly moisturizing, leaves my skin soft and smooth and is very well absorbed on my skin. It cost me BD 9, or if you’re in the UK 13.99 pounds.

Another thing I picked up was the GOSH bronzing powder in the color ’02 NATURAL GLOW’. It is the perfect matte bronzer for contouring, shading and adding a little bit of dimension to the face. Here’s an image of the product with a swatch:

Now the swatch seems a little lighter in the image than it is in real life, I guess my camera washed out the color, so I do recommend you try this before you purchase this product for yourself. I honestly found it to be a lovely matte color. Price: BD 6.30 or 6.99 pounds in the UK.

The last thing I bought from GOSH was a total impulse buy. Now usually I put some time and research into the cosmetics I buy, but in this case I simply needed a concealer, and just like that I bought it. I don’t do this a lot, but I thought, “Who doesn’t need concealer?” and got it! I decided to purchase the GOSH Cover Corrector Stick in shade 2.
 
This creamy concealer works well if you use cream or liquid foundation, which I do. After looking into this I found that some people who use a powder foundation find this hard to work with, so definitely try this out before you buy it! For me it works well for both blemishes and under eye darkness. Definitely set it with a concealer mineral powder, loose powder, or a pressed powder to make it last all day and give you a little more coverage. Costs BD 4.90, or 5.99 pound in the UK.

That’s it for this haul/review. Sorry if it was a little to rambly. Let me know what you think of these products!

Purr by Katy Perry

Hello everyone!

So this is my very first blog post and honestly I'm quite excited! Not only about the new blog, but also about Katy Perry's perfume 'Purr'!

I know I'm a little slow on this one, but I only just decided to check it out. Now usually I wouldn’t be raving over celebrity-endorsed scents. Not because I dont like them, but because the majority of which are too sweet or just generally too harsh-smelling. But I think I was a little too quick to judge. I've been sampling a few and although some were overpoweringly sweet, others--such as this wonderful scent--I found to be quite yummy!

Here’s a photo of how it looks:



Now quite obviously the bottle is adorable, and being a cat-lover myself, I found it irresistible. I feel like the bottle is very well designed, and generally feels quite “expensive”. It even sprays quite nicely, which I know is an odd thing to say, but it’s one of the things I notice first about perfumes. The colors suit the scent quite well and the little collar even jingles like a little cat toy. So irresistible!

So irresistible, in fact, that I had to go in for myself and try it! And honestly, it is quite worth the hype! The scent is not too sweet or too fruity, like many of the celebrity-ish perfumes are. It is a great scent for all year round especially as a transition scent from summer to winter. 

Since I’m terrible at describing scents so I’m just going to put in the description here:
“peach nectar, forbidden apple, jasmine blossom, Bulgarian rose, vanilla orchid, with accents of creamy sandalwood and musk.”

That sounds about right, although… What exactly is “forbidden” apple?? 

Regardless, this perfume lasts all day! I sprayed some on at the store around lunch time and by the time I got home that night I still smelled amazing! It is an au de parfum which is also a little something special about this, since most perfumes are actually au de toilette, which has a higher amount of alcohol in it, and does not stay as long.

The price is quite reasonable too; it was for BD 24, which is about $65 for the big one, whereas the smaller one is $45.

In a nutshell, I recommend this perfume for everyone! It is quite nice, it looks and smells amazing and is affordable. It is available exclusively in Sephora I believe.

What do you think about this perfume?