No7 match made service

Remember to ask for a sample to take away :)

I am no way a fan of No7 make up, even with the whole redesign from make up artist Lisa Eldridge, I still find the brand dreary. Of course, there are perks, such as the £5 vouchers Boots frequently gives out and lately the new promise of finding your perfect match shade of foundation

My experience.

A small amount of makeup removed from each side of my jaw line and then a snap on each by the sales assistant. Simple. The shade that I was matched to was 'warm ivory'. 

I asked the No7 girl, where that shade is on the colour spectrum, pink or yellow? She hadn't a clue what I was talking about. Sigh.

I was not given a tour about all the types of foundations they had on offer, or what type of coverage and finish I wanted. She simply grabbed 'stay perfect' which is fine as it's like Mac studio finish.

Below is how the colour compares to my usual choices of foundations right now, L'oreal lumi magique and Mac studio sculpt. 

Even though the No7 shade looks lighter than L'oreal, I did find No7 looked much darker on my skin, as it oxidised... but only slightly. I've got incredibly dry skin at the moment, so stay perfects gluey formula made the skin very uncomfortable and highlighted the dry patches, making everything appear even more pinky and inflamed.

I'm not 100% happy with the shade compared to my lovely yellow based mac, which neutralises everything on my face, so no purchase here.

Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner Vs Jemma Kidd define eyeliner review

Elle magazine is currently giving away Jemma Kidd's make up school, i-glamour, define eyeliner. On her website the eyeliner is described as "velvety soft, stay put, maximum impact and no dragging". Sounds very similar, I thought, to my loyal Urban Decay 24/7 glide on eye pencil. Which they in turn describe as "creamy and forever lasting". So let the battle begin!!!

Essie Fifth Avenue swatch and review

A new lacquer has arrived into my collection!

Essie in fifth avenue.

A beautiful red with a hint of orange. More red than coral but I still love this unusual shade. Painted with one coat (can you believe it!) with Essie's protein base coat. The base coat makes my nails feel much harder than others I have tried, a new favourite!! Click here to find the £1.79 dupe!!

On a side note, I feel lavishly pampered with my Fekkai shampoo and Korres body milk. More on another post :)

Mavala nail polish review

I feel everyone seems to forget about Mavala with bigger brands like O.P.I, Essie and Nails inc. Mavala however do amazing polishes, better than average chip resistant, strong glossy colour in one coat, no streaks, lovely. 

They also come in more convenient sizes (5mls) so remember all the hype about the new L'oreal polishes? Well Mavala did it first. 

Their polishes are described as nail cremes, which is the perfect description. They are nice and thick, so won't run down the sides if you're too heavy handed like Essie polishes. I think they retail about £5 each in Debenhams or if you buy a pack you save x amount as always. The colour pictured below is called 'Freshy'. 

GLOSSYBOX JUNE UK 2012 REVIEW

Sorry for the late post, it got delivered at 12 (my Hermes guy is super reliable) but I've been moving out of my uni house hence posting just now.

Firstly, you get a Glossybox blush brush (said rrp £15 but it obviously only took £2 to manufacture). Dermalogica clean start kit (Toner, cleanser and matte spf moisturiser) rrp £12. A bare minerals sample of bronzer value is £1 ish. An Yves Rocher mascara sample. Vichy dermablend sample kit.

What do I look think?

Glossybox has definitely taken on board that people want to sample make up. However, I'm a little disappointed with what I got. I don't really like anything in the box. The skin care kit looks like its for oily young skin type, it definitely smells like it has some strong astringents in! The bare minerals bronzer has already stained my carpet with my first attempt to just swatch it. The Glossy blush brush is scratchy. The Yves Rocher mascara although is lovely and does as it says on the tin, unfortunately, isn't waterproof, so won't hold a curl. Lastly, I can only use one colour with the Vichy sample but will be cutting out and handing the tiny sample to my friends with x skin tone.

Yes, complain, complain, complain!!

L'oreal and Revlon eyeliners review

Click here to enter my Asian skincare giveaway

Currently I have three eyeliners in my collection. The old L'oreal superliner carbon gloss (discontinued), its new replacement L'oreal super liner black lacquer and Revlon's colorstay liquid eye pen. Here are the snaps.  

Drawn on the hand from top to bottom are carbon gloss, black lacquer and Revlon. I tried to press down using the same strength for each. Revlon is very poor even when layering. I'm not sure if you can see in the picture but the L'oreal eyeliners are very glossy and the pigment is truly dense and wonderful. 

The smudge test with a wet finger! As you can see Revlon is none existent and the new super liner, black lacquer is super resilient. I can confirm that teamed with Urban Decay eye primer, even oil based eye make up remover has a hard job! 

In Boots, L'oreal carbon gloss retails at £6.49 and Revlon's doesn't appear on the website any more but again retailed at around £6.

Sensitive skin products (Roaccutane)

When I was taking Roaccutane, I experienced the usual side effects of extremely sensitive dry skin; So, I thought I would blog about the products that I used and were to become my saviours. These products would also be great for hyper sensitive skin types too.

Lets start with Carmex. This medicated lip balm was my hero, it didn't get rid of the dryness or the cracks or the bleeding... but it did take away the pain and a hella lot better than other lip products on the market. Post Roaccutane side effects, it makes my lips plump, shiny and no cracks. (p.s. when I was on the medication, it was five whole months of extreme dry lip hell!)

And to moisturisers. I was prescribed a lot of eczema type creams to relieve the dryness, not only for my face but the rest of the body too, things like dermal and other super yucky lard creams. The only one that benefited me, was Doublebase. It's a gel cream type consistency and although sat on the skin, when used overnight, in the morning my skin would absorb it and would feel more comfortable. I remember it occasionally stung but not as bad as the other creams I was given. I recommended my dad who has eczema to give it ago, he too said this cream was a lot better than the other prescriptions. Although I was prescribed this product, you can also buy it over the counter in pharmacies. Neutrogena deep comfort balm was the body moisturiser I used on my skin during the day because it absorbed well. Doublebase was too gloopy to use under clothes, so I opted for this one instead. It soaked in quite well however because it's scented it did have a slight burning feel initially.

The creams that were prescribed to me, were also recommended as face and body washes - yuck! For me, I used Avene cream soap, this soap was great, gentle, no stinging, creamy and moisturising. It's not cheap about £6 for a small bar, which goes very quickly!

I used Garnier sensitive toner to cleanse my face in the morning, as I usually don't shower or use water to wash my face then. This had no stinging! Pro points! and it continues to give relief to my skin when it's dry, I love this stuff. I didn't however, use the moisturiser during my course of Roaccutane but it's a product I recently discovered and it always sits on my shelf. I travel to Durham/Newcastle quite frequently, where the wind whips your face and I find this product soothes my skin, no stinging unlike L'oreal Hydrafesh.

During my course of Roaccutane, I tried many other products, Jergens (stings), Aveeno (Too sticky), Bio oil (did nothing) that wasn't right for me.  Oh and also, the medication dried out my skin so much, I didn't really need to wash my hair unless it started to smell. I didn't have any problems with my usual shampoo and conditioner (L'oreal Elvive) but I did have a bottle of sensitive Head and Shoulders to hand, in case when things got really bad. Another point ABSOLUTELY NO HAIR COLOURING.