Apologies for this delayed post. As I’m travelling, it’s difficult for me to blog and post up videos as much as I would like to because first and foremost; I’m out seeing and enjoying the sights of South East Asia, secondly; dodgy wifi on islands and remote locations obviously has a massive, restrictive impact on when and whether I can post at all. Enough babbling from me though. Here’s what I’ve been loving in the month of September.
Theres one thing I have been enjoying for the past few months but I have seemed to have overlooked it (how rude of me). To set my makeup, which I predominantly use under the eyes (to stop my concealer creasing like a biactch) and down and across my t-zone ( to stop the oil slick from surfacing) I’ve been using Mac Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in the shade Medium Dark. This sets the makeup and stops it from moving from A to B, or in my case A- to god knows where, in the most non-powdery, non-cakiness way that we often associate with pressed powders. It also gives the tiniest bit of coverage so is great if you’re in need of that little bit extra to hide the multitude of sins on your face, or rather, my face (darkness, redness, scars, broken capilaries etc the list is endless). It contains minerals and is baked to perfection to give a softly, blurred effect once applied, in a kind of photo shopped way, but doesn’t make the face look flat at all. The new packaging is a little more bulkier than the original but it does contain a mirror which the old one didn’t. If you’re going to be touching up on the go, you’ll definitely be needing a mirror so that was a good call by Mac to have the packaging updated to include one.
I recently did a post ‘Battle of The Felt Tip Eye Liners‘ where I compared four new and/or popular felt tip eye liner, and I rated the Loreal Super Liner Perfect Slim a score of 3 out of 5, meaning it came second to last. Whilst I still agree with all my comments about the features of the product, such as the ergonomically designed exterior, the thin and pointy nib and the pigmentation, I’ve changed my mind about my opinion of the product. I had commented previously that I didn’t like the nib and now I’m eating my own words. For me, eye liners can be hit and miss. One day, it’ll take me less than a minute to do a simple line and flick whilst other days, I’ll be there for twenty minutes trying to match one eye to the other and failing miserably. I have found that the long, fine and pointy nib actually allows for precision ‘flicking’, for want of a better word. Because it’s so thin, it allows you to build the flick up gradually in small feathering motions. By building it up gradually, there’s less room for error. In a perfect world, I’d choose this nib for doing the flicks, but maybe a slightly bigger nib for lining along the lash-line. However, all in all, this is a great eye liner for getting up close to the lash line and for creating a very precise and perfect wing.
When my Ren Vita Mineral Lip Balm came to an end, I thought I’d take the opportunity to try the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector as my go-to, in-the-handbag lip balm. I picked up the shade 05 Candy Shimmer which is on the peachy side of a medium pink. Clarins describe it as a gel and I suppose it is but it does feel and look like a lip gloss rather than a lip balm. Not that it isn’t moisturising though as it contains of Shea Butter, wild mango and perhydrosqalene, which all work to repair and soften the lip whilst the derivatives of Vitamins A and E not only protect against free radicals, it also aids in repair. It’s not sticky as with some lipglosses but there is a slight tackiness meaning that it can be annoying if you happen to get caught in the brisk wind if your hair is down, but the tackiness means that the product does stick around longer than a regular lip balm would. I think with this product, you get the best of both worlds. A hit of colour and shine with the benefits of protection and repair at the same time.
One of the many highlights of being away from a beauty bloggers perspective is that you come across products and brands that aren’t available back home. One of the products in question, and of which I’ve already reviewed, was the Maybelline Color Show Lipstick. Now I have no idea if these are ever making their way over to the UK but let me tell you, they’ll be our loss if they don’t. I picked up three shades whilst staying in Pengang, Malaysia. Two were purchased whilst the third was a gift with purchase. My favourite of the three is Nude Mocha. This plays homage to the nineties trend which is rife right now thanks to the likes of Kylie Jenner rocking this kind of lip colour teamed with a neutral, contoured eye and tonnes of lashes. Nude Mocha is basically what is sounds like. A natural nude as opposed to a pale, washed-out kind of nude, and veers on the warm side with a brown tinge, hence the ‘Mocha’ in the name. This shade looks beautiful on the lips. It has the perfect amount of pink to avoid it looking too brown, and the perfect amount of brown to it without making it grunge. It has more of a satin finish to it so is extremely comfortable on the lips and did I mention the price? The equivalent to around £3.50! That’t crazy! Maybelline, if you happen to be reading which I realise you probably won’t, these need to come to the UK already.
The other highlight of being away is Duty Free. This is where I go a little bit cray and go into ‘supermarket sweep’ mode (plus points if you rememer that TV show with Dale Winton). I picked up another Chanel lippie and this time it was the Chanel Rouge Allure in the shade 40 Prodigious. This is a soft, mid-toned pink with a slight sheen to it. It’s the perfect shade for everyday wear and can be worn quite sheer with one coat, or intensified for a more opaque finish with a couple more coats. The texture is quite creamy so is rather moisturising on the lips. I’ve been getting loads of wear from it, sometimes alone, other times with a layering of the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector on top for a slightly more glossier finish.
That’s all for this month. Not too much in the way of products but I’ve just done a massive haul in Sephora which I did pretty much as soon as we checked into our hotel in Kuala Lumpur, which by the way, had the most coolest view of the Petronas Twin Towers, so expect a blog post soon!
Have a good day and see you soon!