Favourite SPF’s for Face!

I was chatting to Anna the other day about SPFs and how much I adore them and she asked me to write this post so here it is! 

I’ve spoken before about how pale I am and how much I love embracing my casper-like skin and using an SPF on my face daily has now become a routine for me.  You don’t have to be pale to wear SPF daily though – in fact, you should be wearing it daily no matter what to protect your skin from UVA & UVB rays from the sun.So I rummaged through my skin care drawer and picked out my favourite SPF day creams for you. 

Olay Essentials Complete Care SPF 30 – This is a lovely, affordable facial SPF which you can grab on the highstreet.  This has a slight fragrance to it but feels a lot like a normal day cream, quite light and sinks in easily.

Kiehls Ultra Light Daily UV Defence SPF 50 PA++++ – This is my newest SPF but the one I’ve been reaching for every day because it contains the highest amount of SPF but without any stickiness or tackiness.  I leave this to sink in for two minutes before applying my makeup and it gives me good piece of mind that I can sit in the sun and not damage my skin.

Origins Plantscription SPF 25 – Plantscription was the Origins product I’ve ever tried and I do quite like it!  This is a thick, creamy moisturizer however it is oil free, meaning your getting the best of both worlds – protected skin without the oiliness of other SPFs.

Paula’s Choice Skin Balancing Daily Mattifying Lotion with SPF 15 – I’ve spoken about my love for this moisturizer before on my blog and it still remains one of my favourites (in fact, this has run out now so I need to purchase a new one).  So far I have found that all Paula’s Choice products work really well with my acne prone skin and this is no exception.  This contains an SPF 15 (not the best factor but better than nothing)  and is also mattifying, so it’s perfect for oily skin.  I really recommend this cream and find it’s perfect for every day use.

Ultra Sun High SPF 30 Face – This feels like one of the thickest creams out of the lot and takes a little longer to sink into the skin than all the others, but leaves you with a high protection.  I really like that this is free from fragrance and preservatives too.  This SPF is available from stores like Waitrose, John Lewis, M&S etc.

Wilko Facial Sun Cream SPF 15 – Now, I now Wilkinson’s isn’t the fanciest of shops, but last year I picked up their SPF 15 facial cream and it’s not too bad.  This is a white cream but after rubbing into the skin, it absorbs quite quickly and doesn’t leave you greasy in the slightest.  I have been really impressed with this as a moisturizer as well as offering me sun protection – thumbs up!

UVA (ultra violet ageing) and UVB (ultra violet burning) rays is the damage that sun exposure causes your skin.  To stop burning AND premature aging, you just need to wear an SPF, it’s as simple as that.  It really, really baffles me when girls (and guys) go on sunbeds, without any SPF, just for a hint of tan which will fade in a few weeks time – the permanent damage that this does to your skin is irreversible and to be honest I’d much prefer to be a little paler than my friends, but grow old more gracefully (and smoothly!) than have a tan.  In all honesty I really don’t understand people’s need or want to tan in the first place – I think looking healthy (and not orange) is much more attractive nowadays anyway.  I really don’t mind fake tanning as much (apart from having to sit near someone who reeks of that biscuitty fake tan smell), at least it’s a healthier way of looking for sunkissed, but still… rant over!

Anyway, what I am trying to say is look after your facial skin – wear SPF daily and if your body goes darker than your face, that’s what makeups for, right (but still do wear SPF on your body, okay!).

I have another post that I’m planning on my favourite SPFs for the body so stay tuned for that too!

What’s your favourite facial SPF cream?  What do you think of tanning?

Also - I don’t mean to offend anyone in my mini-rant – I just want people to look after their skin!

xxx

Jo Loves Mango Perfume Reviews!

I’ve definitely been going through a bit of a perfume phase at the moment (does anyone else go through phases of beauty products they are most obsessed about or is it just me?).  I’ve been hearing quite a bit about Jo Loves, Jo Malones side project, on the grapevine recently and wanted to try the fragrances out for myself!

I chose two perfumes which I was drawn to the most and I couldn’t have been happier with my choices, these fragrances are right up my street.

Mango Nectar EDT – Imagine someone squeezing a fresh, juicy mango, right underneath your nose and that is exactly what this perfume smells like once spritzed.  This actually makes my mouth water.  It settles down into a nice elegant, fruity scent which is very easy to wear, especially in the summer months!

A Shot of Oud Over Mango – Now, this won’t be to everyone’s taste (my Mum for example took one whiff of this and hated it).  I, on the other hand, adored this perfume from the first spritz.  This is quite a manly, spicy scent (I love wearing masculine scents, they make me feel sexy) but this contains top notes of Mango to give it a fruity feel.  The base note, Oud Wood, along with Black Pepper in the top notes gives it a deliciously handsome feel.  This is quite a strong, confident perfume so it’s one I save for the evenings (and I will definitely be forcing my next man to try this out – I think it’s one for both the sexes). 

Jo Loves fragrances are available to purchase for £45 for 30ml at http://www.joloves.com/fragrances/.  I’ve also heard that there will be a Jo Lovees store opening soon, as soon as I have more info I’ll update this post!

I have also smelt the rest of the range and can confirm that Pink Vetiver and  Orange Tuille are also beautiful!  Try and sniff them if you can!

Will you be trying any Jo Loves fragrances?  What’s your favourite fruity perfume?

xxxx

MAC Blusher Collection – Swatches!

I’m here today to show you my entire MAC Blusher collection. I absolutely adore all MAC products and blushers are a particular weakness of mine. I thought I’d film a video telling you a bit about them and you can also find swatches in this post too!

L-R Happy Together, Moonriver, Hipness, Pinch O’ Peach, Strada, Melba, Peaches, Ladyblush

MAC Blusher Collection!

Strada- My favourite blusher which has now been discontinued. In short, this makes my cheekbones look incredible! I need to find a blusher dupe of this for when it runs out – if you have any recommendations then do let me know!

Melba – Melba is the most stunning warm peach shade which really warms up my complexion. I think this is a really popular shade and really recommend it!

Peaches – Peaches is obviously a bright peach blush, which actually looks really similar in the pan to Melba.

Pinch O Peach – I have no idea why it is called Pinch O’ Peach because this pink blusher contains NO peach at all! A little bit silly, but it’s still a nice shade. I tend to steer clear of pink blushers as I think warmer tones suit me more.

Hipness – This was part of ‘To the Beach’ collection and I’ll admit I bought it mostly because of the seahorse on the front. In terms of colour, it’s a gorgeous pink with hints of peach and a gorgeous shimmer running through it too.

Moonriver – I absolutely love and adore this product. It was released in the Mineralized Collection and it contains two different sides – one shimmery pink blush and one highlighters with blue and silver veins running through it. This is gorgeous in the summer on dewy skin, but can be a little glittery.

Happy Together – Another one from the Mineralized Collection. I don’t use this often as it is a little brown and orange on me, but used well it’s a gorgeous contour/bronzer.

I know in the video I mentioned my MAC Skinfinish powders and highlighters but I’m going to save them for a separate post! 

Do let me know if you enjoyed this and if you would like any more brand collection posts/videos!

What are your favourite MAC blushers? Can you recommend me some more?

All purchased with my own money!

Favourite (Top 5) Eyeshadow Palettes!

Eye shadow palettes are definitely a weakness of mine; I simply can’t resist them! I’m definitely a girl who spends a lot of time and makeup focusing on the eyes rather than any other part of my face and am very rarely seen without eye shadow or eyeliner.

Now, it’s obvious that I adore palettes for the simple fact that they contain multiple eye shadows in one product, meaning I don’t have to carry around millions of individual products, instead I have everything in one container. This makes travelling so easy and generally saves time getting ready as I don’t have to search through the drawers of makeup looking for one particular colour.

I thought I’d put together a selection of my favourite ever eye shadow palettes for some inspiration!

1) Pixi Palette – This is one of my newest palettes and I adore it. It’s pretty swanky as it contains 20 eyeshadows (a selection of both matte and shimmer) as well as three blushers, two bronzers and a highlighter. I use this palette to create a variety of looks and I really love it. For £16 it’s a bargain as well.

2) HD Brows Kit in Vamp (review) – Now this is supposed to be a brow palette but I use it for eye shadows (and brows) and it has not left my daily makeup bag for the past year. Although the cream shade is too dark for my pale skin, the taupe-grey-brown is the most perfect shade for my eyebrows and works fantastically in the crease of my eye. I also adore the black shadow for setting my eyeliner and also adding a little more smokiness into my look. This is the palette I reach for to create my smokey-matte daytime look.

3) MUA Undress Me Too (review) - I recently reviewed this (you can see it here) and I really like it for it’s affordable price (only £4) and good quality shadows in colours similar to the Urban Decay Naked Palettes (which I do love but decided not to feature in this post).  A great palette to own if you are afraid of wearing shadows – these shades can ease you in to the world of smokey-eyes!

4) Sleek’s Storm Palette – My favourite and most used palette ever, I have been I have used two of these already and have another three as back ups. Now when I say ‘used’, I obviously haven’t used every single colour in the palette, but I mean I have come to the end of my three favourite colours in the palette which are the light gold, bronze and dark brown. I used this palette daily for about two years to create my signature shimmery gold smokey eye and just adore this particular selection of shades.  The matte black is perfect for all types of looks (I use it to line my top lash line) and the silvers and blues also make a stunning black smokey eye.  It’s love!

5) Famous Cosmetics Palette in Exposed (review) – This was one of the first Famous Cosmetics products I tried and the quality of the shadows just blew me away.  These shimmery shades are SO pigmented, they create the most beautiful shimmery brown eye.  There are also two neutral matte shades in there in case you’re not feeling the need to dazzle.  For under £5 on the highstreet, this is a catch!

So there we have it – my top 5 favourite palettes.  Of course, I do have many others which I love and adore but these came out on top.  Let me know if you would like to see more of my favourite palettes and I’ll pop them in another post for you!

What is your favourite eyeshadow palette?

xxxx

Bourjois Cream Blushers–Review & Swatches!

Bourjois have launched some brand new cream blushes this spring and I am very excited to show them to you guys today!  I definitely have a thing for cream blushers – they give you a beautiful natural looking effect as they melt into your skin, meaning they are perfect to wear all year round.

Read on for what I think of these!


 

01 Nude Velvet – 01 is the most beautiful soft, peach blush.  This is stunning matte shade which gives a subtle peach effect and the first one I was instantly drawn towards (can’t resist a nice peachy product)!

02 Healthy Glow – 02 is another apricot peach, but a little darker than 01.  This also has the slightest hint of shimmer which is just stunning and makes it perfect for spring/summer.

03 Rose Tender – 03 is a soft pink with a pearly finish which creates a ‘baby doll’ complexion.

04 Sweet Cherry – 04 is the dark horse of the range and actually the one I have been wearing the most out of the bunch!  This is a matte brown-pink which looks surprisingly fabulous on my pale skin – makes my cheekbones look great as well as giving me a beautiful flush of colour.

What I Think – I’m super impressed with these little pots of goodness and think they make a great addition to any girls daily makeup routine.  The formula of the blushers is lovely; it’s a cream which dries to a silky powder and because of this I feel like it holds onto my skin and has great staying power, not to mention how gorgeous the shades are.

They are available for £7.99 each from Boots and Superdrug!

Will you be picking these up?  What’s your favourite cream blusher?

xxxx

April Favourites

Yet another month has flown by, here is a brief summary of the products I have been adoring throughout April!

April Favourites 2013!

Bobbi Brown Extra-Wear Foundation in Porcelain – This is the foundation I’ve been reaching for the most throughout April, it’s a lovely cream foundation which provides medium coverage and leaves my skin looking beautiful!  I have a full review of this with before and after pictures coming soon! 

Bourjois Cream Blusher in #02 – This has been my blusher of choice over the past month.  The gorgeous peach with a hint of shimmer gives me the loveliest flush of colour on my pale skin and the formula is lovely – a cream which dries to a powder.  Full review of this coming soon!

L’Oreal Volume Million Excess Lashes Mascara – I do tend to rotate mascaras and seem to have a new favourite every month (I’m really indecisive) but this has been my most used over the past month.  This plastic brush leaves my lashes looking lovely and long!

Kiehls Ultra Light Daily UV Defense SPF 50 – I am a big believer in wearing SPF daily to help protect your skin from UVA (ultra-violet aging) rays.  It’s really difficult to find a face cream which contains a high SPF without leaving your skin feeling tacky and greasy, but this sinks into the skin so easily that I’ve been using it everyday (especially now that the sun is out in London)!  I’m thinking of writing a post on my favourite SPFs so let me know if this sounds of interest to you!

Bepanthen – I got a new tattoo in April (my fourth one) and I have been carrying Bepanthen around with me everywhere to heal it properly.  This is actually a nappy rash cream but works superbly at healing skin and relieving itchi-ness.  Not so interesting but a great product non the less!

Dr Lewins Nail Strengthener – I’ve never been overly bothered about the length of my nails, although they have never been that great and break a lot.  I recently started using this and it has really made a difference in the strength of my nails.

So there we have it – my favourite beauty products from the month of April!

I haven’t included a book in this but I read two books in April – Catcher in the Rye (was never forced to read it at school and wanted to know what it was about – took me a while to get into but quite enjoyed it) and Signs of Life by Anna Raverat which I LOVED.  I really recommend this book – it’s about an affair and the story is quite disjointed with lots of small memories and I just adored it, although it does make me slightly feel like giving up on love!

What did you love in April?  Can you recommend me any more books?

xxxx

MUA Undress Me Too Palette

As you all know, I wear eye shadows daily and my favourite types of eye shadows are neutral golden, brown, grey, black shades.  I knew I had to get my mitts on the Undress Me Too palette by MUA when it hit stores and review it for you guys!

 

L-R top row - Naked, Devotion, Shy, Fiery, Lavish, Dreamy
L-R bottom row - Tranquil, Exposed, Reveal, Wink, Obsessed, Corrupt

I really like this palette – the shades are stunning for every day use and are a good quality for the price.  I especially like the shades ‘Exposed’ ‘Reveal’ and ‘Obsessed’.  The matte black is also beautiful and perfect for running along the top lash line for a smokey liner effect.  ‘Shy’ really reminds me of one of my favourite eye shadows – MAC’s Nylon, it’s the most perfect shimmery cream gold which I use as a base colour and to highlight the brow bone.

As with most eyeshadows, the shimmer shades are more pigmented than the matte, but for £4 you really can’t complain!

Available in Superdrug stores, out now!

What do you think of MUA Palettes?  Will you be picking this up?

xxx

Sleek Lipstick Palette in Siren–Swatches & Review!

Y’all know that Sleek are one of my favourite brands on the highstreet for their incredible quality products and they are back this Spring with a new launch – lip palettes!

Sleek make my favourite ever lipstick – Barely There, so I fully trust them with lip inventions. All of their lipsticks which I’ve tried (which is almost all of them – part 1 here and part 2 here) all incredibly pigmented and in a variety of stunning shades, so I was really eager to try these palettes out.

I have the palette ‘Siren’ which contains four beautiful orange based lip shades. By looking at them you wouldn’t think they pack that much colour but, boy, I was surprised!  These are practically like squashed down lipstick in a pan – they still hold all that colour and pigment that normal lipsticks have.

 
Top Row L-R Love Me, Desire Me
Bottom Row L-R Miss Me, Kiss Me

Miss Me – This is a stunning matte pale orange shade (which reminds me of their lipstick in Peaches and Cream). This is the most perfect orange shade for the Spring.

Kiss Me – In the pan this looks like a good dupe for MAC’s Morange however it doesn’t translate as well on the lips.  It’s still a pretty orange toned red, just not as bright and vibrant as it could be!

Desire Me – This is one super pigmented lip shade, which reminds me of a darker, more orange version of Nikki Minaj’s Viva Glam 2 Lipstick. I only need one swipe of my lip brush to coat my lips in this fabulous shade.

Love Me – This is the same consistency as the pink orange, and only little application leaves you with deliciously pucker lips.  I really love this shade however it does have a tendency to melt really quickly, so don’t leave it in a place where it’ll get hot!

What I think: I’m super impressed with this product and for only £5.99 you can’t go wrong.  I love how there is a selection of different textures and finishes in the palette and I love the colour variety available (there are 6 palettes in all ranging from a bright pinks to a deep plums).

You will definitely need to use a lip brush to apply these lippies with (one comes inside the product) to achieve a nice even application and shape (it’ll definitely get a bit messy otherwise).

Will you be picking one of these up? 

xxxx