Mini haul and my FIRST Mac purchases

Hi all,

I've just got back from taking the kids to Legoland for 2 days. I have to say I need a few days to recover. It was brilliant but exhausting!
We did want to pop to London on our last day but we ended up spending way more than we expected whilst we were there so we decided against it. We took £400 for 2 days as spending money thinking we would have enough left but we ended up spending it all. If you have kids and are thinking of going to Legoland take plenty of money!

So on the way back I decided I wanted to take a bit of a detour and we went to Bicester and found a little outlet village. There were loads of fab shops but my husband pointed out to me the Cosmetic Company Store. I actually stopped breathing for a minute, I kid you not.

They had Estee Lauder, Clinique, Bobbi Brown, Mac and a few other brands all at discounted prices. I've been wanting to try Mac for a while but the prices put me off because I have seen so many mixed reviews on alot of the products and whenever I have been into Selfridges and swatched I have never been overly impressed but considering they were cheaper than usual I couldn't not!

I picked up 2 things a Mineralized Skin Finish in Porcelain Pink and a Mineralize Eyeshadow Duo in this and that.

The MSF is gorgeous, its a pinky coral colour and is lovely as a highlighter. I have got a bit of colour to my skin at the moment since having a few days of sun and looks really nice as a subtle highlight to my cheeks. I really do want to try some more of these. I've been looking online and really like the look of a couple of others. I think I'll be grabbing at least one more when pay day comes around (and this cannot come round soon enough)

The eyeshadow is also amazing, they had loads to choose from but I am loving my neutrals at the moment and have been using my Naked 2 palette every day for the last month so I picked up this little beauty. The colours as stunning, the pigmentation is really good and the lighter shade looks amazing in the inner corner of the eye and as a brow bone highlighter.

The MSF cost me £15.25 and the Eyeshadow duo was £11.75 so quite good prices in my opinion.

There are 6 of these outlets in the UK. They are

1). Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth Harbour
2). Bicester Village, Oxon
3). Designer Outlet, York
4). Cheshire Oaks, Ellesmere Port
5). Designer Outlet, Swindon
6). Junction One, Antrim

The one at Ellesmere Port is the closest to me so I will be heading off over there a week on Sunday after getting paid to pick up a couple more. I can see this becoming my new (expensive) addiction.

After arriving home I wanted to go to Boots to see if they had anything new in. I picked up 2 items.

First was this No 7 Skin Illuminator in Peach, this was on half price from £11 to £5.50. It comes in either pink or peach. I have already have a pinky illuminator so I picked up the peach. I swatched it in the store and it was really nice, since getting home I have put a little on my face and I'm not as impressed if I'm honest, it seemed a little patchy. I'll try it again tomorrow on freshly moisturised skin and hopefully it will be better. I also really dislike that it has a brush, you have to twist the brush round so the product can be released from the tube, you have to be super careful with this. I ended up squirting it all over my hand and the sofa trying to twist it as it was really stiff. I'll update if the product turns out to be any better when I try it again. 

I spotted this in the clearance section for £1.75, I have been wanted to try these for a while but I didn't want to fork out £6.99 for it as I don't tend to get on with L'oreal eyeshadows. For £1.75 I thought it was worth a go and luckily the only colour they had was Endless Choclat which was perfect. Its a lovely dark brown colour, it goes onto your lids like silk. It blends effortlessly and lasts for ages. Looking at in in the packaging does it no justice, it really is a beautiful colour. The packaging is quite nice, what I really like is that there is a little stopper inside which stops any of the shadow going all over the place. This is super handy. I'll definitely be picking some more of these up. 

Last but not least I headed over to Poundland to pick up some diet coke. I picked up this rather lovely Revlon lipgloss in coral reef. Its the perfect coral colour, I look awful in any coral/orange shades as in really really bad but I love them so much. I picked this up on the off chance it suited me and it does! Its a gorgeous summery colour its really glossy but not sticky at all and it lasts a good while before having to be reapplied. I have seen a lilac one of these glosses in another Poundland near to me, I've often admired it but always thought I would never be able to pull it off but after trying this and seeing how gorgeous it is I think I shall pick it up next time I'm in town.

Hope you enjoyed my little haul. I hope I'll be doing a FOTD with these products shortly as soon as my skin has cleared up!

Which Mineralize skin finishes have you tried? Any recommendations would be appreciated!

Lots of Love

CF x x x

Budget Bronzers Review

Hello you gorgeous ladies,

Today I thought I would do a quick review on the budget bronzer/highlighters that I have, well I say quick I thought I may have a couple as a very rarely wear bronzer with me being so pale but turns out I have quite a few so may not be the quick review I was expecting so I will get straight into it.

The swatches are in order of the picture above, we have Vivo in Sun Kiss, Vivo in Healthy Glow and NYC Color Wheel in Island Spice. The Vivo bronzers are amazing, the Sun Kiss gives a gorgeous glow to your face its just stunning, its really buildable colour also, I'm really pale (as you can see from the pics above) and I can apply just a small amount just to add a bit of colour to my face but you can also add more if your slightly darker and it builds up nicely without making you look caked in make up. The healthy glow I use as a highlighter on the top of my cheek bones and it really does do what it says on the tin, gives you a perfect healthy glow. You only need a tiny amount as its really pigmented so I can see this lasting me a long time. I would definitely recommend these to anyone. I think Vivo cosmetics are definitely worth the money. The NYC bronzer is not so good, it looks quite pigmented in the picture but I had to rub my finger in the bronzer for a while and keep building it up to get this colour, its not very pigmented at all and if you use a brush you get next to nothing on there, unfortunately this is a bit of a fail for me.

Here we have the 17 from Boots GLOW bronzers in pink bronze and gold bronze and at the end the MUA bronzer in shade 3. The 17 bronzers are super pigmented and super shimmery, I have tried them on my face and they are very pretty colours but far too shimmery for me. Each one is 4 separate shades that you can swirl together to get a nice glow, I can't use them on my face, they accentuate the pores on my face and just do not look flattering. I use the colours individually on my eyes as a shimmery eyeshadow and they are really pretty, especially if your doing a bronzed summery look. So for these its a fail on the bronzer side but a win if your using them as eyeshadows. The MUA bronzer comes in at only £1, it has decent pigmentation and is a matt finish. Its a nice product, just a bog standard bronzer really nothing special but nothing bad to say about it. The packaging is sturdy so I would feel ok popping this in my bag to take out with me for the day or for travelling. For a quid I don't think you can go wrong. I think it would be good for someone who maybe hasn't tried a bronzer before and they don't want to splash the cash with something they may not like. Win for me on this one!

Ok, so pretty sure some people are going to hate me for this, we have the ELF Cool bronzer and the blushed/bronzed duo. I know alot of people have raved about these but I just cannot get on with them at all. The cool bronzer makes me look dirty, I so wanted to love this product but I just can't. It doesn't seem to blend at all and just looks awful I have tried it a couple of times but every time I have had to take off my make up and start again because its just terrible (for me anyway) next the blushed/bronzed duo. These aren't very pigmented, I can't get any colour from the blush at all when I use a brush and the same with the bronzer, I have tried to use it for contouring but I can't get anything from it at all. The only time I see any colour is if I rub my finger vigorously in the pan but then thats not much help really is it? Sorry ELF both of these are a big fail for me.

Another 2 17 products, the bronzing rocks and the instant glow bronzer and highlighter. I love both of these especially the instant glow. 

The bronzing rocks don't give to much colour when using a brush and sweeping over your face but rather a nice looking glow to your skin, I would think these would look stunning if you have tanned skin. There are pink rocks and bronze rocks, if you can see above I have taken a swatch of a pink rock and a bronze rock, I have also used these on my eyes again and they both are really pretty on the eyes too. Gotta love a multi use product! The instant glow is amazing, gives me a perfect bronzed look for my pale skin and the highlighter is great on its own on the cheek bones or the brow bone. I'm pretty sure I got this free using the Boots vouchers from the machine, something along the lines of buy 2 17 products and get this for free. They often have amazing offers on these machines so don't forget to check them out when you go to Boots. Both of these are a win in my eyes and I would repurchase them both.

These are the W7 boxed bronzers, I think we all can see where W7 have got their inspiration for these boxes. Maybe another higher end brand that do something similar? Anyway, these are super cheap, I picked up the Africa from New Look for £2, the Africa is really pretty on the cheeks, its not good for a bronzer as it comes out really pink but it gives a lovely glow to your cheeks. The Honolulu is lovely, a matt bronzer its lovely to blend and the pink packaging is super cute. Unfortunately its a little too dark for me but for something with darker skin than me it is a lovely product and for the price I don't think you can go far wrong. 

 

Another one that I think people may hate me for. Here we have the Bourjois Bronzing Powder and the Sun Kissed Bronzing Pearls. I really really dislike the Bourjois for two reasons, the first is the smell. People have raved about this smelling like chocolate but I think it smells like a cheap car freshener, I cannot stand putting this on my face because it stinks, I really wanted to like it because it looked like chocolate but I can't it just smells so bad. The second reason is because I cannot get any colour from this at all. The swatch above was me layering colour over and over again, it must have been over ten layers and there was still hardly any colour, the sunkissed next to it was me swirling my finger around in the pot a few times and swatching and there is a massive difference. Unfortunately the Bourjois was a big miss for me and it was the most expensive of the lot. The Sun Kissed I got from the Poundshop, these are ok, they're cheap and cheerful a but a bit shimmery for me not as shimmery as some of the others I have mentioned. I cant wear these on my cheeks for a slight glow but I do have to be careful otherwise I can look a bit like a glitter ball. Not a good look!

So for someone who doesn't really wear bronzers I think I have quite a few. Oops. I also have some higher end bronzers that I didn't include as I wanted to focus on more budget friendly products, plus there are some here that I think are much better than others which have cost me over £20, especially the Vivo I would repurchase these over and over as they are just so pretty.

Hope you enjoyed my little(ish) review. Do you have any budget bronzers that you think are really good or do you know of any bronzers that are good for the paler girls amongst us? Please leave a comment below.

Lots of Love

CF x x x

Todays Sleek Purchases

So, I have been trying to get my hands on two Sleek products for the longest time but everytime I go they are always out of stock. I have tried over half a dozen Superdrug stores in my area and they never have them. I went to the Trafford Centre in Manchester today to check again and nothing. I decided that it just wasn't meant to be. Poor me! We then went to the Golden Square Shopping Centre in Warrington so I could have a mooch in the TK Maxx as its so much better than the one near to me, I went into Superdrug to have a look at the hair dyes and what did I see? The two items that I have been wanting. What were the products I hear you ask? Well firstly was the well known Rose Gold Blush, I know most people will probably already own this as its been spoken about to death on Youtube and on beauty blogs but I just haven't been able to get my hands on it and today there were 3, THREE!
Secondly was the contour kit, I have been wanting to try this for ages but everyime I go they only have the dark and I need the light as I am so incredibly pale and they had 1 left. I don't think I have grabbed anything from a shelf so quick in my life and I walked around Superdrug guarding them with my life.
I was so happy I forgot to put the diet coke I had on the counter and almost walked out without paying. I did pay but the sales assistant didn't look impressed. Oops!

So Below are my Sleek purchases and a couple of swatches for you to look at!

The picture of the blush does it no justice, it really is a beautiful blush and certainly does live up to the hype. I think it will be featuring on my next FOTD.

Thanks all

Lots of Love

CF x x x