Review: Estee Lauder Little Black Primer

Long time no blogging!

I've been busy the last 2 months so I haven't gotten round to posting anything. That does however mean I have been busy trying out more products to review! The first being Estee Lauders Little Black Primer.

I've never really been into mascara primers. I had tried a clinique one a few years back, but since it was white it made my mascara go a horrible grey colour- not attractive. When I heard about EL black primer I was interested!

Oh. My. God. It didn't disappoint. I love this mascara! I use it before mascara as a primer and also after mascara to make my current favourite Benefit Roller Lash waterproof. It makes my mascara last all day and doesn't smudge at all! I do still curl my eyelashes beforehand and I feel like it keeps the curl. It could also be used as a mascara on it's own, but for me I prefer bold lashes so I don't use it for that purpose.

Kendall Jenner on the advertisement!

Will I be purchasing again? Yes. Definitely. I have used my mascara without it and it just didn't look the same! It's now a staple in my makeup bag. You can get it from boots, debenhams, john lewis, house of fraser and online (too many places to link!) It is priced at £17.50 but feelunique or debenhams regularly have 10% off.

Talk soon,

Bourjois Rouge Edition Aqua Lipstick Review

L-R: 02, 04, 01

So excited for these! I'm a big fan of the Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet lipsticks, so when I heard they brought out an Aqua version I was intrigued. They launched on March 18th, come in 8 different colours and are priced at £8.99 each (boots and superdrug currently have 3 for 2 and you also get your points!) I picked up 3 colours, 02 Rosé On The Rocks, 04 Viens Si Tu Roses and 01 Appechissant. 

L-R: 02, 01, 04

L-R: 02, 01, 04

Claims:

Bourjois Rouge Edition Aqua is a liquid lipstick with a mirror like shine finish, available in a selection of shades from nudes to statement brights.

Bourjois Rouge Edition Aqua Lipstick offers:

1. Mirror like shine.

2. Intense colour.

3. Water-light sensation.

4. 10 hour hydration.

5. Non-sticky formula.

6. Cushiony applicator for comfort and easy application.

Result:

1. Mirror like shine? Yes I would agree, all three have a nice shine, looking like a lipgloss.

2. Intense colour? From my swatches you would think, but the lightest colour (02) is very sheer on application. Both 01 and 04 are intense colours.

3. Water-light sensation? I guess, I think its quite a strange thing to describe it as! But very light on the lips and it does not feel uncomfortable.

4. 10 hour hydration? Hydration? Yes. 10 hours? No. Definitely need to top up every few hours. After 2 hours of wear of 02 I needed to reapply as it started to feel slightly dry and the shine had worn off.

5. Non-sticky? I agree. I was surprised at the lack of stick-i-ness if i'm honest. Love the feel of them!

6. Cushiony applicator for comfort and easy application? It's a standard applicator for lipgloss/stain products. I wouldn't say it was anything revolutionary, its the same as the Velvet edition applicators. It does make it easy to apply though.

 02 Rosé On The Rocks

My favourite. It's the perfect everyday nude for me and combines a lipstick and gloss in one. It is very sheer though, but it doesn't bother me that much. As I said above I had to reapply after about 2 hours of wear which was disappointing. Overall, this is my favourite colour out of the three I picked up.

04 Viens Si Tu Roses

In my local superdrug they had 6 colours, 3 classed as "nudes" and 3 classed as "brights." This was apparently a nude in the eyes of bourjois. However, I do love the colour. I'm very fair and sometimes I think vibrant pinks/reds can look too harsh on me, but this one doesn't. One thing which is annoying is the application. It can get a bit streaky when you are applying the second coat (which is needed.) This colour lasts longer than 02 but rubs off when eating/drinking. It will be my go to pink/red colour!

 01 Appechissant

I think this is perfect for spring! Its a peachy, nude colours with a lovely payoff. It lasts longer than 02, and goes on a lot better than 04. Therefore, it's probably the best formulation out of the 3. I can't wait to wear this when it gets a bit warmer! The colour payoff is less than 04, but you still get a good few hours. I feel like since its a lighter colour, it wears better as well.

Overall, I think these are great value for money! The colours I have picked up I feel like would be everybody's cup of tea. They also have a brighter pink, red and a more orangey colour available. I feel like these will be my go-to lip products for the next few months! 

Available online at feelunique and online and instore at boots and superdrug.

See you soon!

MAC Cinderella Collection: Stroke of Midnight & Royal Ball Review

This is one of the only MAC collections i've been excited about. I play it safe when it comes to makeup, so when I saw this collection, I knew it was right up my street! I was too slow when it launched online on the 8th of March, so I knew it would sell out fast when it went into store. Theres only two MAC counters in the closest shopping centre to me, both in Fenwick. I got there at 8:55am and there were a lot of people already there, luckily I still got what I wanted! I originally went for the eyeshadow palette, but whilst I was in line I decided to pick up Royal Ball too. When we got into the store, I was probably the 10th person in the queue and eyeglosses had already sold out, and people in front of me were buying up to 3 of each product each. It was manic!

 

Stroke of Midnight Eyeshadow Palette - £38.50

This is originally what I went for. I have brown eyes and love using purple toned colours to make my eyes pop. The palette comes with Satin Taupe which I already have, but I use it a lot so having another is great as I know i'll keep on using it. Its the perfect palette for travelling as well for me. The only new colour in the palette, stroke of midnight, I use to set my eyeliner. I do this everyday and love the hint of purple sparkle in it. So far, no fall out for any of these shadows and they last all day when I use my NARS primer. Overall, I love this palette. I love MAC eyeshadows in general and I would use every single one of these shadows. Plus the packaging is just adorable!

 

Royal Ball Lipstick - £17

I bought this on a whim. I love MAC lipsticks but this are ridiculously expensive!! I thought since I was there and it was limited edition I would get it. I chose this rather than Free as a Butterfly as I prefer pink shades rather than more brown. Verdict? I'm not sure. It's a lustre, which most of my other MAC lipsticks are bar one. I'm just disappointed in the colour, I thought it would be a lot more pink than it is. I'm very fair and I sometimes feel like it washes me out. I would say its definitely a no go for darker skin tones. Overall, it's very moisturising but i'm disappointed in the colour, but I'll try and make it work.

Unfortunately this collection is sold out EVERYWHERE. It sold out within 45 minutes in store at Fenwick. I know there has been some controversy with Debenhams releasing the collection, but if they do get it back online, it's probably the only place you will be able to get it apart from ebay.

See you soon!

Beauty Wishlist: February 2015

Let's be honest, the size of this post could be doubled, even tripled, so I kept it within my top 10 wants. All of them are high-end (and VERY expensive *insert sad face*) which I think is fine for a wish list post!

1. Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder. £38. Will I ever get one? I doubt it, but a girl can dream. For the hefty price tag it would have to be put on a birthday or christmas wish list (both of which are at the end of the year *insert another sad face*). My local SpaceNK doesn't stock Hourglass as far as i'm aware, so I wouldn't know what colour to get anyways. At the minute i'll stick to my bourjois powder, I guess.

2. Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush. £28. Much more reasonable price than the powder, but a lot smaller. Again, I wouldn't know what shade to get, but I usually go for more light pink colours for my very pale skin. I was going to talk about the blush palette, but it isn't appearing on the SpaceNK website, but i'd much rather have that! However Max Factor have launched blushes which some bloggers have compared to the hourglass ones. I picked one up the other day, juries still out, watch this space for a review in the next few weeks!

3.Narsissist Blush, Contour and Lip Palette. £35. Look at how pretty this is. I'm pretty much obsessed with Nars after I rediscovered the Velvet Matte Lip Pencils and Virtual Domination Palette. This is a bit too similar to the VDP for me to buy. If the lipgloss was replaced by a VMLP I probably would splurge. 

4. Charlotte Tilbury Lip Pencil in Pillow Talk. £16. I need this lip pencil in my life. I NEED IT! However it's only sold on selfridges and I don't fancy paying an extra £5 postage for it to be sent to Newcastle. Come on Fenwicks/John Lewis/SpaceNK, STOCK TILBURY! This will be mine. Just you wait and see..

5. Hourglass Rouge Liquid Lipstick. £23. All the reviews i've seen make me want one. Sephora stock mini travel sizes which i'd much rather get, i'll just wait until someone I know goes to the states!

6. Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage. £26.50. Expensive for a concealer, but you do get a powder with it, making it the perfect 'on-the-go' concealer palette. With my dark circles and horrendously big breakout at the minute this seems right up my street! I'm currently trialling out a different concealer at the minute so this will remain on the wish list for a bit longer..

7. Narsissist Dual Intensity Eyeshadow Palette. £45. Do I have to justify why I want this? Just look at it. It's bloody beautiful! Why am I put off it slightly? The silver and blue colours. For £45, I would have to use every single eyeshadow to justify buying a palette with only 8 colours in it. Those two colours don't appeal to me, I have brown eyes and brown hair, I just wouldn't use them.. *sigh*

8. Charlotte's magic cream treat & transform moisturiser spf 15. £70 *gulp*. The price of this is obviously putting me off, and like I said earlier, I would have to pay an extra £5 delivery on top of that! Reviews of this have been amazing, especially for people with very dry skin. I don't particularly have VERY dry skin every day, but every so often I have dry patches that just won't budge. Again, another to be put on the christmas/birthday wish list! 

9. Laura Mercier Mineral Powder. £31. I've wanted this for a very long time, ever since ESTÉE blogged/vlogged about it over a year ago. The only other mineral powder I have used is the bareminerals one, and I sort of have a love hate relationship with it. I don't think the colour is a very good match for a ghost-like pale skin. The colours seem a lot better than the bareminerals selection so i'm optimistic. Maybe i'll splurge, maybe it will be on my wish list for another year!

10. Sunday Riley Good Genes Treatment. £85 *double gulp*. Every single blogger/vlogger I watch seems to use and love this. Zoe, Tanya, Caroline and Jim to name a few. I love a good treatment, and feel like this will do wonders for my skin. Out of all of the products here, i think this is the one i'd most likely splurge on. I would much rather have better skin and use older makeup products than have worse skin and use newer makeup products. It kind of just makes sense to me, right? Good base, = makeup goes on better? Yes? Get me? I am currently selling some old bits and bobs I haven't used for ages on ebay, so maybe would I make off those will go towards this? Who knows!

So this is my February beauty wish list! A VERY expensive one at that. A girl can dream eh?

See you soon,

Product Empties: February 2015

Only 3 empties this month, and all skincare! I don't go through makeup very quickly so I think skincare and possibly hair products will the main products in these posts! Let's get on to the products i've used up.

Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream (available here)

I've had this moisturiser for about 5 months now and i've used it basically every morning and night. Its very creamy and feels luxurious on the skin. It's a great base for my foundation, it doesn't cause it to slide and sinks into the skin quickly. When I wake up in the morning my skin always feels plump and soft after i've used this, it's a definite win. I've struggled for years trying to find a good moisturiser, I feel like i've tried them all. This one seems to be the best one i've used. It is available from a lot of stores as well, I personally prefer getting it from either Debenhams or SpaceNK so I can build up points. I'll be restocking today! 

Origins Super Spot Remover (available here)

I've used this for years, even before the super spot remover came out and it was just the origins spot remover. I apply it on a night time when I can see a spot appearing or on a spot that is already there. When I wake up the spot is noticeably smaller and less red, or in the case where the spot is appearing, it is less prominent. It doesn't work EVERY time. If I have a raging spot appearing, it doesn't do much in order to prevent it from forming, but it does help once it's there. I don't think there's any product that gets rid of all spots, but it does the job for me! One problem I have is the price and how long it lasts. I normally have to apply it every night/every other night and I feel like it only lasts 2 months tops. For the price, it's quite expensive! The other problem I have is how it dries the skin around the spot out. Normally when I apply makeup around the area the next day you can see my foundation/concealer around the dry spots caused by the gel. Nevertheless I still use it religiously. Again, it's available from many stores but I prefer boots to get my points!

Hydraluron Moisture Jelly (available here)

I love this stuff. It helps combat the dry patches I have instantly. I originally used the hydraluron serum in the tube, but once I finished that I tried the jelly instead. I feel like it does the same thing, it's just in a different packaging. Both are £24.99 and 30ml. Out of the two, i've already repurchased this version. The packaging allows you to get every bit of product out. Once the pump stops at the top, you can unscrew the lip to get the rest out, something you can't do with the tube. To get product out of that you need to cut the tube open, making it a messy job and causes the product to dry out.

Overall, this has done wonders for my skin and I apply it every night without fail and it has lasted me around 7 months. Everyone with dry skin needs this in their life! It's only available from boots at the minute, meaning you get your points! It's always on 3 for 2 as well, so if you have the money you can stock up.

There we have it, 3 products, all empty, all being repurchased ASAP!

See you soon,

5 Beauty Bits I Never Used To Do, But Now Can't Do Without!

All of us have them. Things we never used to do, but couldn't not do now. Here's my list!

1. Fill in my brows. I never used to do this. I feel like its only been the last one or two years where people have started actually filling them in. My brows aren't sparse, but aren't thick. Now i look back at photos and wish I had even put some clear brow gel through them. I use the HD Brow set to fill in my brows. I got this around 2 years ago in a glossy box and thought I would have no use for it, now I use it every day! I also set my brows with the L'Oreal Brow Artist Plumper in Medium Brown.

2. Shot of cold water after washing my hair. I feel like this isn't done by a lot of people but should be. I can't remember when/where I heard this, but ever since I have done it, and I can see a difference when I hadn't. Basically, after shampooing and conditioning your hair, rinse it with cold water. It makes my hair looks and feel softer.

3. Not using a primer. This is kind of the opposite to the title. I used to use a primer for my base, now I don't. Reason? GossMakeupArtist. I saw a video of his saying not to use a primer, i thought it was ridiculous. My makeup hardly lasted the whole day with a primer, why would it last longer without? Sure enough, I tried it, and somehow my makeup lasts longer. One less cost for me!

4. Use a conditioner as shaving gel. I think most people would have heard of this one. Shaving gels always used to irritate me after shaving, leaving my legs feeling dry and sensitive. Now I use conditioner instead. I just buy the cheapest, nicest smelling conditioner I can find and use that. I'll never go back to shaving gel!

5. Double cleansing, exfoliating toners and serums. This point is basically a giant shoutout to THE GODDESS THAT IS CAROLINE HIRONS. After finding her blog whilst watching a video with her and pixiwoo, my skin has never looked better. On a night time my routine used to be makeup wipe, Clinique toner, moisturiser, done. Now the thought of only using a face wipe makes me cringe. I now double cleanse, tone, used a serum, the whole shabang. I'll be writing another blog post on my skincare routine so I won't be getting into too much detail here. 

Basically if my skin could talk to Caroline it would say:

See you soon,

February Wishlist!

So many clothes, so little money. I spend a lot of my spare time online browsing, looking at clothes, bags, makeup, more clothes.. you get the drill. I thought for my first post I would share my current clothing wish list. Over the next few days I will also be posting my beauty wish lists as well. Anyways, enough talking, lets start!

1. Topshop MOTO Authentic Ripped Skinny Jeans. £45. I've wanted these all winter, but I didn't see the point in getting them at the time as I wouldn't wear ripped jeans when it was freezing outside! Since it's getting a little bit warmer, (except when I'm writing this, it's 3 degrees outside, gales and raining!) I may treat myself. Only problem is on the website they are only showing the petite version! Although i'm only 5ft2.5 5ft3, the Topshop petite jeans are waaaaay too short for me! I saw my size in my local Topshop the other day, maybe i'll have to get them since it looks like they won't be around for much longer. A justified reason, right?

2. Topshop Split Back Duster Coat. £79. I think everyone and their mother has this coat, which kind of puts me off getting it. This I would have to get in petite, otherwise it would make me look even shorter! It isn't appearing online, but I have seen the petite version in my local store. Trench coats are back in this season, and this one just appeals to me more than others. However, for £79 it looks like an unlikely purchase for me. I can still dream though, right?

3. Oasis Paisley Insert Tee. £28. I love this top. My wardrobe basically consists of monochrome outfits with the occasional denim jean instead of my trustee black joni jeans. I saw this in store the other day but chose another top over it. I would still love to go back and get it though. Oasis isn't a store I normally shop in, I feel like its more formal wear than casual everyday, but for some reason it has appealed to me more lately!

4. Oasis Drape Sleeve Top. £28. Again, I LOVE this top. I tried it on when I went shopping last week, but surprisingly for me, I decided to go with the printed version of the same shirt (here). I feel like every girl needs a simple white/cream 3/4 length sleeve shirt. Most people go with the button down with a collar, rolled the sleeves up kind of shirt. I cannot stand them, I have a thing where the sleeves HAVE to be equal otherwise they always feel weird to wear. I've tried them so many times but I just can't get away with them. To cut my rant short, this is my kind of white top!

5. H&M Wool Blend Jacket. £49.99. Now this is right up my street. I love biker jackets, possibly my favourite kind of jacket to wear. I saw Fleur from FleurDeForce wearing this jacket in her vlog the other day (here) and I fell in love. Only problem is, if I do buy it now, i'll probably only get a few weeks wear out of it since spring is approaching. I do, however, live in Newcastle so you never know with the weather. Do I or don't I? Decisions, decisions..

6. Oasis The Daisy Top. £32. Oasis, AGAIN?! I'm so shocked with myself. Out of the 3 tops I have chosen from Oasis, this has to be my least favourite. Reason? The split back. I'm not a big fan of these style of tops, but they seem to be EVERYWHERE. I pick up a top and it always has a split back, why?! I do really like the design though, i love florals. I guess i'll try it on in store and see the verdict. However, this is probably last on my list.

7. Topshop Long Sleeve Crepe Polo Top. £16. Rolled neck jumper? Yes please. Throughout winter I have been loving to whole turtle/polo neck trend. I have basically lived in this jumper all winter. In fact i'm planning on wearing it today! This seems like a thinner jumper, so perfect for the beginning of spring. The price as well, only £16! Bargain! I need this in my life.

So there we have it. My wish list of clothes for February 2015. I plan on doing this every month as i'm a shopaholic and there are always clothes I want! Next up will be my beauty wish list within the next few days.

See you soon!