Nivea Tinted Moisturiser Review

My skin has been really awful over the last week since going to the Leeds Festival. A weekend of eating nothing but junk food and using wine as my only fluid intake certainly has taken its toll on my face. Rather than caking my face in heavy foundation I decided to give tinted moisturisers a go. I have a small sample tube of a Clinique moisturiser that I quite liked but after researching and reading reviews I decided I wanted to try the Laura Mercier one. It costs £33 from John Lewis so I don't want to order it online I would prefer to go into a store first so until I can get down I picked up a Nivea one for a bargain price of £2 from Asda.

Here is what Nivea say about the product.

Enriched with Light Reflecting Pigments and Vitamin E, it provides the skin with essential intensive moisture and enhances your natural skin tone all day long. With UVA/UVB filters, it also helps to protect from environmental influences that result in premature skin ageing.

 You get a whopping 50ml of product in the tube and the usual price is £4.07 at Superdrug but its currently at £1.79 

I find that this gives a much better coverage than other tinted moisturisers I have tried some of which were much more expensive than this. The colour is perfect for my skin but from what I can see it does only come in one shade which is natural. I don't think this would work for extremely pale skin I would say its just about right on me at the moment and I do have a bit of colour to my face. 

It blends into your skin well and does help even out your skin tone, I've had a bit of trouble with redness on my nose but I haven't needed to use concealer after using this product which is a mahoosive bonus! I also found that it did a really good job of disguising the pores on my nose and cheeks which some of my foundations just seem to highlight which is fab for me as I'm so conscious about them. With it being a tinted moisturiser it obviously isn't going to cover any major blemishes so you will need some concealer but I do with my foundation anyway so its no more time consuming than usual for me.

I don't need a powder over this, however my skin is quite dry at the moment but it is usually quite oily so I will have to see how it goes when my faces goes back to its usual oil slick self.

It has a slight fragrance to it, it isn't overpowering or particularly unpleasant but it does fade after a while.

 It gives a really nice dewy finish but it doesn't look greasy or oily in any way.

Overall I'm really happy with this product and will be picking up a few back ups whilst they are on half price at the moment. I'm also going to be holding off on the Laura Mercier one for a while, I'm perfectly happy with what this does for my skin so at the moment I can't really justify spending £33 on it.

I would definitely recommend this for anyone who doesn't want to use foundation but still wants some coverage. I do actually prefer the coverage on this to my Garnier BB cream. 

Have you tried this or the Laura Mercier moisturiser? I'd be really interested to know your opinions.

Hope your all having a great weekend and thanks for reading

Lots of Love

CF x x x

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

My problem skin and facial steaming

I recently tried out a new skincare range, it contained no nasty parabens etc so I thought my skin would be fine. After about a week of using it I found my skin felt really tight and I developed a sore, itchy rash on my face that was so uncomfortable and quite painful and also a cluster of angry spots on my chin. I very rarely get spots apart from a certain time of the month so put it down to the new skin care range I had and stopped using it straight away. I went back to my old products and found that the issues weren't getting any worse but they weren't getting any better either. 

After about a week I decided to try a product that I know other people have had success with for getting rid of spots. Freederm. I didn't use this on the areas that had the rash just the horrible spots. I followed the directions exactly as stated on the  box and within 2 days my skin was horrendous. My chin is so dry (bear in mind that I have oily skin) its painful and looks like I have a really bad rash. I stopped using the Freederm right away, this was about 2 weeks ago now and its still just as bad as it was. 

My skin is something that I do try to take really good  care of and this has really knocked my confidence at the moment. Its almost impossible to cover even with a good concealer and I have a constant feeling of discomfort and putting moisturiser on my skin stings like a bitch.

I've gone back to my old products that I have never had a problem with and can see that they definitely work for my skin, so goes the saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The range I use is First Aid Beauty. Its available online at various retailer or in selected Boots stores. Its really reasonable priced, doesn't contain parabens or harsh chemicals and its suitable for sensitive skin. It works for me so I'm now sticking to it.

So whilst in my search of something to help my skin I came across a couple of articles about facial steaming. I've done the whole bowl of boiled water with a towel thing and I just felt like I couldn't breathe and gave up after about two minutes. Reading a little more into detail about steaming I realised that there was alot of benefits to relatively cheap and easy addition to your routine. Some of the benefits include

• Helps to soften plugs in pores which can make it easier to remove dirt and dead skin debris
• Stimulates skin blood circulation allowing the skin to look refreshed.
• Allows for deep cleansing.

Source

I decided that I wanted to try a facial steamer but didn't want to fork out a fortune for something that I may only use once. So I found one at Argos for only £9.99 

I figured if I didn't like it, £9.99 isn't a huge amount of money but if I love it I can invest in a more expensive one at a later date.

It was really easy to use, fill the water up to the water fill line, plug in and switch on. I managed to do this all by myself so it really is simple 

I sat with my face over the steamer for about 10 minutes. The book stated 15 but I thought 10 was enough with it being my first time.

After I finished I splashed my face with cool water and used a gentle exfoliator on my face. I then finished off with my First Aid Beauty moisturiser. My skin feels so soft, my forehead really is as soft as baby's bum! I also found that my skin looks alot brighter and it didn't sting when putting my cream on like it has done. I'm not sure if this is down to the steaming or if it is just FINALLY getting better!

Either way I'm definitely going to continue with facial steaming and see how it goes, I have some blackheads on my nose which are being rather stubborn and seemingly are rather comfortable where they are and don't fancy moving so hopefully this will help. After I have done this a few times I will do an update to let you know how I get on, hopefully I will be reporting on some glowing skin and a blackhead free nose!

Have you tried facial steaming? Whats you opinion on it, I'd love to know so please comment below!

Lots of Love

CF x x x