Makeup Revolution Series - Face

Makeup revolution is one of those brands that's slowly building it's empire. I was one of the early birds to this brand and since then I've very quickly been building my own large collection. If I included everything in one post, you'd be reading for 35 minutes so what I'm going to do is start a Makeup revolution series. The first post in the series will be

all about the tried and tested face products I own.

Contouring is something I do every time I do my makeup. My face is very chubby and round so if I don't contour I just look like an egg. I use the makeup revolution Ultra Contour Palette and this is my holy grail. This was one of the first things I tried from this brand and it was love at first sight. This palette retails on their website for £8 (can also be found at superdrug for £8) and comes with 8 pans of product which can be used for contouring, bronzing and highlighting. It has nice black sleek packaging which makes it good for travelling as it's nice and thin, with a full sized mirror inside. I personally don't use some of the shades like the light pale pink powder, but as you can see from the picture I use the banana powder like no man's business. The banana shade is perfect for setting the concealer under my eyes and it's perfect every time. The two shades on the top right are both highlighters. They're both very packed with fine glitter so I only occasionally use these two as I find the glitter particles fall over my face as the day goes on.

The pink shade when swatched has a lovely sheen but then once applied the sheen blends away and your left with just glitter and this is the case with the white gold one too. As you can see this is a baked highlighter, but for me personally I just don't reach for these two because they're so glittery. Now I know highlighters are meant to be partly glittery, but I prefer highlighters that give more of a sheen. The whole bottom row are all meant for contouring and bronzing. All shades are very pigmented and good quality but I'm the colour of white paper so I can't use all of them. Obviously you can see which one I use more. This shade is perfect for me when contouring, because it's a very neutral shade it's not to ashy and not too warm it's bang in the middle. To bronze my face with this palette I mix that same contour shade in with the one on the right and this gives me a nice natural bronze. The marble shade on the end of the row, is a beautiful shade but I only reach for it every now and again, just because I prefer a more defined contour and bronze. However it'd be perfect for people just wanting a natural glow. All of the powders are very pigmented and very finely milled which is perfect to avoid that cakey look. The only critiques I have with this product is that the pans don't have shade names and also that you can't buy the pans of product individually. So if I wanted another banana shade I'd have to buy a whole new palette unlike the NYX contour kit which you can buy individual pans for. But for the price I think this is a star buy and I've never used anything else that has been on par with this product, and for only £8 for 8 pans who can complain!

My boyfriend knows how much I love this brand and he bought me the makeup revolution advent calendar. for the Christmas. I got three pressed blushes in this and I love all of them. One of them is in the shade Now (top left). This is now my number one blush! It's a neutral rosy shade with high pigmentation that adds a nice healthy flush of colour to your cheeks. These blushes aren't chalky they're very smooth which means they won't look patchy or too heavy on the cheeks. There's nothing worse than looking like you've just put children's chalk on your face. Another one that I got is in the shade Treat (top right).

This blush has a slight coral tinge to it but had a noticeable orange undertone. I love orange blushes for the spring time they're just perfect and their popularity is growing thanks to brands like NYX and Sleek that are bringing more orange tones out rather than the traditional pink. Both of these blushes have tiny shimmer particles in them, but they're so small you can only see them when you hold the blush right in front of your eyes. When on the face it is not noticeable at all and are so small the blushes look matte.



The third blush I have is in the shade Wow (left). This has the same shimmer particles as the other two, but because of the shade of blush they are slightly more noticeable. In the pan the blush looks scary, it look s neon. But when swatched it's not as bright and blends to a muted fuchsia colour. All three of these blushes are available on their website for only £1!

I also have two baked highlighters from this brand. I'm not going to speak about them in this post as contouring and highlighting products blog post. So if you'd like to know more about them then check out that blog post for swatches and more information.

The third face product which is a recent purchase of mine, but so far I've loved it, is the Ultra blush palette in the shade All about Bronze. This palette comes with 8 pans, ranging from mattes to shimmers, to baked bronzers. I've loved this palette from the moment I used it. My skin is very pale which means most bronzers on the market look like I've put a line of fake tan on my cheeks, there all just way too orange but this palette is so diverse. The shades go from neutral to dark but not so dark that they're not use-able, which makes this palette great for all skin tones rather than just being aimed at one market group. This is a high point for me, because I hate when I buy face palettes and can only use half the shades because the others have orange undertones. When I do my makeup I like to base it on the weather, so when it's winter I want a more neutral look as alot of bronzer and the dull weather and shade can make my face look radio active.

Whereas in the summer I much prefer to look glowy and bronzed. I love the packaging again with this product, it's the same as the contour palette with the sleek black packaging and mirror inside. I use this palette everyday and tend to gravitate more towards the bottom row as these are the matte shades, I prefer to use matte bronzers and then get my glow on with my highlighter. But then saying this, the two baked bronzers give me the bronze and the glow I look for mixed together, with it's easily blend-able formula giving me a more subtle flush of colour. Now that spring and summertime have arrived I can see myself using these more and more giving me more of a chance to experiment with the different shades. I personally don't have any problems with this product blending nor with it being chalky and I can go all day without these going patchy which for me as I work in a very hot environment is great, as I need bulletproof makeup. Again like all their products this is available on their website and also online at superdrug and can now also be found in selected superdrug stores. At £6 it would be rude to complain about this product as most single pan bronzers can retail in the drug stores from £5 onwards.

The last face product I want to mention is the Pro fix makeup Fixing spray. I might have mentioned this before but I have eczema which makes my skin extremely dry and makes my fine lines even more noticeable. So if I use powder to set my makeup it really accentuates all of the flaws on my face and makes my dry patches more noticeable. This is obviously not what I want, so rather than use powder I went on the hunt for a setting spray. Now the only ones that were very popular on the market were the urban decay setting spray and the NYX one. Both of these were a little bit pricey for me, I prefer to find the more affordable makeup products and when I seen this one for only £5 I thought I'd give it a shot. I now use this every single day to set my makeup and I recommend this product to everyone I know. I can notice a big difference when I leave the house without using this and I also see a difference in the longevity on my makeup throughout the day. The new packaging is to die for, I have a bottle which is in the old packaging and also two more bottles in the new packaging, which is a beautiful white and rose gold packaging. Now who isn't obsessed with rose gold! That's how much I love this, I just stock pile it. The most important thing for me besides if it actually worked or not, was the spray nozzle. The spray nozzle deposits just the right amount of liquid with each spray, I personally use about 3 or 4 sprays and that in my opinion is just the right amount. One thing I was worried about when I bought this was it soaking my face, there's nothing worse than spending all that time doing your makeup and then going to set it with a spray and it just drenching your face. This product does have a smell but once it's on and dry it's not noticeable but just remember to keep your mouth closed because I've made this mistake and it definitely doesn't taste nice. Again like all other products in the post, this is available direct from there website and also superdrug.

The prices are all so low that I have no problem paying full price for these products. But one thing I love doing is waiting until superdrug has there 3 for 2 offer on which means you can get all the products you want but for less. Not all superdrug stores have the products in store only a select few. Now I'm from Coventry and they only have a small stand in my local superdrug so when I want to buy products I haven't tried before I wait until I go to Birmingham. The superdrug in the bullring stock most makeup revolution products and they also stock their sister brand I♡Makeup. I would recommend if your trying the products for the first time and you have a superdrug near you that stocks the brand, to go in store and check out the products because you can test things against your skin tone before you buy. But if you don't and can only order online I'd still recommend trying out some products as 110% of effort is put into the quality and also the customer relations. I've never had a problem when ordering off there website.

Thanks for staying and reading I hope you enjoyed this post! This series will be continuing in the next blog post so if your interested in finding out about more products from this brand then stay tuned for the next instalment!

Makeup Shelf Life 101

Now I'm not claiming to be an advocate for taking care of my cosmetics, because I'm just as bad as the next person when it comes to not throwing out that mascara because it still has abit left in it. Now the summer's here it's important to look after our skin in the heat and sun, and making sure our makeup products aren't out of date is all part of this. Makeup products aren't actually required to have an expiration date on them, like food, but they normally have a small jar symbol with a number which tells you how long the product will last once opened. So for a product that lasts six months it'd be labelled - 6M. Now here's a list of dates I've found myself, but these may vary as different brands sometimes have longer shelf lives than others.

Foundation 6-12 months

Concealer - 12 months

Powder - 2 years

Mascara - 3 months

Liquid eyeliner - 6 months

Pencil eyeliner - 1 year

Eyebrow gel - 1 year

Brow pencil - 1 year

Eye shadow - 2 years

Blush - 2 years

Lipstick - 2 years

Lip gloss - 1 year

Nail varnish - 1 year

I have the memory of a gold fish so I've got no chance at remembering dates of when I bought my makeup products. So if you're the same as me a good way to keep track of these is by either keeping a log of  products and dates, or even buying small blank stickers and writing the month you bought the product on it and sticking it onto the individual products.

Even though makeup is labelled with how long the product lasts, still use your common sense when it comes to your products. If your lip gloss has separated and gone gloopy, toss it. If your nail polish has separated, don't just shake it and use it, toss it. The most important products to keep track of expiration dates are products which go around your eyes. So if that mascara is making your eyes itch, then it's time to go and buy a new one.

Makeup Evolution

This is going to be a bit of a quick throw back Thursday episode. Now-a-days babies come out of the womb with a Kimmy K contour and highlight, but when I was little it was different. It was all about hair mascaras and glitter eyeliners, or hoping that for Christmas one of your relatives would buy you a pretty pink heart shaped makeup set from Argos. Kids these days are missing out on that awkward stage where you start to wear makeup and end up with an orange face with way too much blush and eyeliner on, they're jumping straight to the Anastasia Beverly hills contour kits and brow pomades.

Now I was born in 1995 and it was around the year 2000 that makeup started to evolve hugely, including bringing back past trends like those 90's dark brown lips which resurfaced around the autumn time in 2013. The influence of beauty guru's rose to an all time high in 2015 and is continuing to grow, with people more frequently turning to YouTube to learn how to do their own makeup rather than going to a makeup artist. Even some makeup artists are self teaching themselves and going into the industry self-employed. And of course we can't leave of the Kardashian's now! Kim kardashian in particular, being as influential as she is, really got the ball rolling with the world of contouring which is now used by a lot of people in their everyday routines. Including mine! I've probably said this before but my face looks like an egg without contour and bronzer because I have such a round face and such pale skin.

But it's not until you look at past and present pictures you actually realize how much your own makeup has changed throughout the years. When I was younger I was big on the eyeliner, and I don't mean the trendy cat flick eyeliner that everyone's big on now, I mean the heavy eyeliner along the waterline that's as dark as black matter.

I can see myself from looking at all these pictures of myself over the years, how much my own makeup taste and skills have evolved. When I was younger I was all about the eyeliner and strong baby pink blush. But as times gone one, as I can see from the pictures, my makeup has matured as I have and I've definitely picked up that 90's lips vibe! This is my favorite thing to do - looking back. As my skills have grown, so has my confidence. It's amazing the power you have to transform when you pick up that makeup brush for the first time!

What were your old makeup habits and have they changed much?

MUA Liquid Lipsticks/Old formula VS New

I'm a person who looks for the quality of high end makeup but with half the price tag. I think the most expensive makeup item I've ever bought myself is a maxfactor foundation and that only cost me £12.99. To me, makeup products from the drugstore should not cost more than around £10 - £15. And for around the £15 mark I would expect an amazing quality product. But with some brands you don't see this, some brands are really trying their luck with their price ranges.

The first time I'd ever heard of the brand MUA (Makeup Academy) was when everyone was raving about their £1 lipsticks. MUA are a UK based brand and have a wide range of products. These £1 lipsticks were the thing they became so popular for and were the first thing I ever tried from them. When I walked into superdrug and saw they'd bought out their take on liquid lipsticks I was so excited I wanted to buy every shade. They have over 10 different shades (not all are available in stores, but are online) but I managed to control myself and I only bought two at the time to give them a try. These cost me £3 each which is a bargain!

These are called MUA luxe velvet lip lacquers. First let's just talk quickly about the packaging. There are two different packaging types available on the market as they recently revamped the product, but the old packaging and formula is still available. The packaging is so chic looking with the frosted plastic tube, the old packaging has a black lid with gold writing and comes in a cardboard outer packaging. The new packaging has a gold top with black writing and comes shrink wrapped which makes it so much more hygienic. I much prefer the new gold packaging it just makes the product look so much more prestige and the shrink wrap also guarantees no ones used the product beforehand. One thing I only noticed recently is that on the bottom of each tube, there is a sticker with the shade name on. This just made me love them even more as with some MUA products once you remove the shrink wrap with the sticker on you lose the shade name. Even the simplest little thing like the outside packaging makes the product so much better. The new wand has also been revamped, with the does foot wand being made to be less fluffy.

The first two I bought are in the shades Reckless and Tranquillity. These two are in the old packaging and are in the old formula. Reckless when in the tube looks like a traditional red colour but when applied has a berry pink undertone and Tranquillity is a your lips but better everyday nude. Its a gorgeous colour and very highly pigmented and is a thicker consistency so you can get an even application with not alot of product. I'm just going to be 100% honest right from the start. I don't really like this formula. Since the first few times I tried these colours I never went back to them because there were alot of things I didn't like about them. They have a very strong lipstick cosmetic smell but once applied you can't really smell it but you can definitely taste it. You don't have alot of playing time with the application, as they dry

quite quickly and do dry down to a matte. These are very drying and do settle into the fine lines in my lips, and if I had dry lips I couldn't go near these because they would just look appalling.

However I have noticed different shades work differently. The shade Tranquility didn't settle as much as Reckless did. I have never been able to wear this formula for a whole day as it only looked decent for a few hours, and after that time it has completely rubbed off the inner part of my lip and has flaked off in other places. Both shades lasted the same and had the same problems which shows me that it is just the overall formula that the problems lie with. Both of these shades are no longer available in this formula but they are both available in the new formula. This change isn't mentioned on the website but you can definitely tell the difference with the new and old formula. This shows me that the problems I was having with them, weren't just confined to me.

They have recently bought out 4 new shades in Zest, Vivacity, Potent and Symphonic. I got one of these new shades in Zest and I also have the shade Kooky. Both of these are in the new packaging and the new formula and there are so many positive changes to it. These ones are very glossy when applying so it makes it easier to stay within the lines and not get it all around your mouth, however this does mean you have to layer abit more of the product on for it to be opaque. The new thinner formula does mean you have to take a little more time to apply them, but the extra playing time the new formula allows is no problem. These do have a very strong smell, worse than the others and it starts out as a fruity kind of smell mixed with a very cosmetic smell.

Kooky is a deep purple shade with blue undertones so isn't as vampy as most purple undertones which have more of a berry undertone. This colour does look drying on the lips, but it feels comfortable, if you apply this neatly it can look amazing, and looks really good in the winter. Zest is a bright coral shade and I love it especially around this time of year when it's starting to transition from spring to summer. But I did notice when applying that you do have to layer it quite alot else it can look patchy, as the coral is quite a chalky colour, but because the shade is such a stark shade it's hard for it not to look chalky. It is a little bit drying however but it's manageable and does last a long time. I had this on and after eating a meal and drinking it was pretty much stil

l on and it was bulletproof when I was trying to take it off.

The way I like to apply these is by using a lip brush to line the outside of my lips. By using a lip brush it basically turns the liquid lipstick into a lip liner as well, and by doing this it gives me a better looking application and also gives me more control when getting a crisp line. But the new applicator makes it easier to apply without lining your lips. I plan to go and buy more of the shades now the formula has been sorted out and for £3 I know I'm not going to have to worry about emptying my piggy bank to afford them.

These are all available online though I have heard that shades that were originally available in the old packaging and formula (e.g. Reckless) are actually still being sent out rather than the new gold packaging and formula (I cannot 100% guarantee there has been a formula change but I myself can definitely see a difference with it). Now I don't know if this is just a case of them getting rid of any old stock they had left over, because the image on the site has now been changed to the new packaging. Just a heads up that they don't sell all shades in store, but I do think that the issue with old stock being sent out would have now stopped because the website has been updated.

Thanks for reading and I think before you go out and buy your next high end liquid lipstick you should definitely give these a shot and let me know what you think of them!

Contouring And Highlighting Products

These days it seems like if contour and highlight disappeared the world would stop spinning. Everywhere we turn there's new contour and highlight products being released, which can make it hard when picking out the right products for yourself. I think we'd all be lying if we said we hadn't been sucked into the craze. These are the different products I have tried and tested and I'm also going to share my own everyday contour and highlight routine. I'm just going to warn you now that this post will be a long one, so grab a drink or a snack and get comfy.

The first product I bought when I first started out with contouring was a basic palette from eBay, which I know most people are sceptical about. It can be hard to find the right contour shades for your skin tone, picking the wrong one can either make you look like you've rubbed a wotsit or dirt over your face. This palette has good colour range, as it's original purpose is to be used as a concealer palette. Now I used this palette mainly for contouring and as you can see from the picture, the darker shades are the ones I used the most. The pigmentation of them is very light, which is why so much product has been used. Even though it's a cream kit they're actually not that creamy so I had to really get my brush in there to pick anything up, so I'd recommend mixing a small amount of moisturiser or even Vaseline, just to make the texture easier to work with. Now these do have a very powerful smell when you open it, it's kind of like those cheap paint trays you used to get when you were little in those hard plastic trays, so just keep this in mind. You can buy this product on eBay for as little as £2 just search for cream contour kit, but I would recommend this more for those starting out in make-up. I have gotten rid of this product personally so I don't have an image or swatches.

The next product is the Maybelline master sculpt. This is a 2-in-1 contouring product. I first saw this product on instagram and I just had to get it and try it. This little square beauty retails for £6.99 and is available in 2 shades, 01 light medium and 02 medium dark. Now with any products I buy I automatically float towards the lighter shades. Boots isn't always reliable when having good testers to look at, there's always those few people who just take the testers instead of buying the product. So when looking I had to just rely on eye and I got the 01 light medium shade. Now keep this in mind if your looking at buying this, the 01 bronzer is more of a warm shade and 02 is more of a ash grey tone. I think you should buy whichever one based on personal preference rather than the shade of your skin because as you can see from the image on the right it does have an orange tinge. It's very pigmented so if you do pick up this product use a light hand. The highlight is ok, but its not a sheen it has alot of fine glitter running through it and is very powdery as you can see from the swatch. Now for those who like that, then this would be right up your street, but for me I find through the day the tiny glitters fall to the rest of my face. Both are just as creamy as each other, but the highlight is not as pigmented as others out there. One bonus you get with this contour kit, is that if you lift the product up you have a brush underneath with
a mirror attached to the underside, the size of the packaging and these extra things really make this product travel friendly.

Collection 2000 speedy highlighter in 01 pearl sheen is one which I didn't even know was on the market. Even though there is such a high demand for cream highlighters in the drug store, brands just aren't producing them. I actually bought my one from Tesco, but these are available also in super drug and retail for £3.99. Now this highlight stick is supposed to be a cream stick, but I find it more to be a cream to powder formula. It has a very strange consistency. The colour is very pearlescent and is good for us fair people as it gives you the glow without leaving a stark line of colour across your face, but gives us that glow when the light hits your face. Don't use a brush to apply this product, the way I apply is it by rubbing it across the places I want it straight from the stick, then using my finger just to blend out the edges. This is the best way to get as much pigmentation as possible, because when using a brush it's like it doesn't pick up any product. I found myself reaching for this less and less, because when you blend this in, the sheen tends to disappears and leaving behind a line of glitter. I would say this is better for young teenagers which are just starting to get into make-up. This would be perfect as the product never allows you to apply too much.

Now w7 is a range I have never really explored alot. It's one of those brands that you see it everywhere in those random make-up areas in stores, but you never think to pick up. My family actually bought me this for Christmas and it's the w7 The CHEEKY trio. This trio comes with a bronzer highlight and blush. I actually got this in a set with two w7 eye shadow palettes and because this was a present I don't know where this was from or how much it was but you can find these on there website and I'm sure they'd be sold in places like B&M and Amazon. I haven't really used this alot just because I have a select few holy grail products which I use everyday. I'm absolutely in love with the packaging though, and I know if I ever drop this it won't break. This product has a strange fragrance to them, kind of like a flowery scent which I don't mind. The bronzer and blusher have a medium pigment, the bronzer glides on smoothly and when blended is a nice warm brown shade. Its not too ashy and it's not too orange it's like the perfect neutral bronzing shade. The blush is a typical rosy pink shade, but it's a little chalky but when it's blended in it looks fine. Don't use too much though as this is the most pigmented out of the three. The highlighter however really lets the trio down. In the tin it doesn't really have
any kind of a sheen to it, it looks more like a setting powder. Even when swatched it looks chalky like a beige kind of coloured powder that disappears as soon as you rub it in. In the swatches on the left I did swatch the highlighter, but as you can see nothing has shown. The swatch on my finger above, I rubbed my finger in the product in quite abit and this was the most pigment I could get from it. One thing I love about this though is that each pan has a shade name, I'd still recommend trying this as it is a budget brand but I wouldn't buy this for the highlight.

This post is starting to get rambly and long so I'm going to group the next two highlighters together. These highlighters are from Makeup Revolution. These two highlighters we're actually ones I got in my Makeup Revolution Christmas advent calender. The first one is a baked highlighter and is in the shade pink lights (left in images). This is actually a lilac coloured highlighter and because it's a baked one this it's got ALOT of glitter in! I really don't like this highlight because of that and the fact it's purple as well. I just don't really want a like of purple sheen and glitter along my cheekbone. This one I am not a fan of.






The next one I have from this brand is a pressed highlighter in the shade hidden lights (right in images). This is a gorgeous golden highlight which would suit any skin tone especially those of you with darker skin. It's like a golden sands colour and is very similar to The Balm Cosmetics Mary-Lou Manizer. The Pink Lights highlighter is available on the Makeup Revolution website and also in some super drug stores. For all of you who love the glitter you'd love this. For everyone who likes a more natural glow I fully recommend the Hidden lights highlight but for some reason I can't find this on the Makeup Revolution site but there is one called Golden Lights which looks identical so maybe they just changed the name.

We're finally done!
I hope this helped some of you and gave you an insight into the world of highlighting and contouring, thanks for staying and reading.

Garnier Micellar Water - Worth the hype?

The way I think of beauty products, is that they either work, or they don't work. Alot of makeup products on the market seem very gimmicky and I thought this was one of those. I wasn't prepared to be paying £4.99 for a bottle of something that could just be plain water for all I knew. But once I eventually tried the garnier micellar water I haven't turned back since. Before getting this I did some research into a few different ones that were on the market and one that popped up alot was the simple micellar water. This was the one I originally was going to get until garnier bought there's out. Now it seems alot of brands are following suit and releasing some.

Now this is available in a 400ml size but I actually buy the smaller 125ml travel size ones. The Garnier micellar water is available in Boots and you will also be able to find it in most stores. I normally buy mine when the small bottles are on offer for £1 and just recently I found that poundworld actually sells the travel size ones which is great for those who are thinking about trying it but don't want to buy the big bottle. The smaller ones are also great because it makes it easy for me to just throw in my bag if I ever have an overnight stay and I've never had a problem with the top coming open on its own.

The main thing for me with this product is that it doesn't sting my eyes. The best way to use it for your eyes is to wet a cotton pad somewhat with the product then hold it on your eyes for a few seconds. This will break down the mascara and other eye makeup and make it easier to remove. I don't find myself having to rigorously rub my eyes, so I feel confident I'm not pulling out any eyelashes. It's the same with the rest of my face, this product is hypoallergenic so it's very soothing and doesn't irritate my skin which is good for my dry, eczema prone skin. This product has no perfumes in it which is good because with alot of products it is the perfume which irritates the skin and stings your eyes. When taking off my face makeup it goes in one swipe and leaves my skin feeling soft and refreshed. But those with oily skin don't be put off, because this product doesn't leave behind an oily residue like other products.

I find his product doesn't have a problem with different types of makeup. Even with liquid lipsticks it just wipes straight off and doesn't smudge the makeup across your face, this product uses micellar technology which lifts the dirt and makeup off the skin making it easy to just wipe away. One thing I hate is when you go to remove makeup from one area and it ends up all over your face. Now this product is just to remove makeup, even though it is a cleansing water, I do still recommend following up with your normal skincare routine to make sure your pores aren't clogged. I'd say just with this product alone I can remove 95% of my makeup and even waterproof mascara. This is a more gentle way of removing makeup because with normal face wipes you have to rub your face alot more to be able to get the dirt off. This micellar water only had seven ingredients in, which is good because the less ingredients there are in a product the less chance you have of something reacting with your skin. Now lets compare this to my icare tea tree facial wipes, which have 21 ingredients. After I use these wipes I have to wipe my face with a clean towel to get all the product off my face else it'll start to sting. Face wipes are alot more moist as well and majority of the time the product doesn't soak into the skin but sits on top of it.

I would recommend this product 100% to young or old, as it's very versatile. This product is definitely worth all the hype it gets.

NIVEA Hydration Primer VS NIVEA MEN Post Shave Balm

Lets begin the primer battle off. The two products I'll be comparing will be the NIVEA daily essentials hydrating primer and also the NIVEA MEN Post shave balm. Now before I get into it, let me just start by saying yes I know the after shave balm is not a primer, nor was it created for a priming purpose. However! This is a product which is slowly becoming more and more popular with women. The popularity for this product has spiralled. Lets put that to one side for the moment though and get into the nitty gritty about the two products.

Now the NIVEA hydration primer was one I really looked forward to trying. I got mine from Boots, I think I got mine when it was on offer. On the Boots website at the minute its retailing for £4.99 for a 50ml jar. I suffer from eczema which makes my skin super sensitive and dry, which means I find it hard to find skincare and primers that don't affect it. This product doubles up as a hydrating primer, so I thought this would be great as alot of products dry my skin out more. The consistency of it is really strange. When you look in the jar, it looks like a creamy formula like a face cream, but then when you dip your finger in to get product its abit slimy and has an oily texture. Its really thin though, and soaks in quickly after application.

I had high expectations for this product, but it really let me down. From the minute you take the lid off, a perfumey scent hits you. When you smell it closely, it's like a mix of perfume and a moisturiser. Normally things like that are nice, who doesn't like nice smelling face products, but this was instant alarm bells for me. Because of my temperamental skin I already know that anything with perfume in, will irritate it. But you don't know unless you try it right? When I put it on my face at first it was ok, but then a few seconds after I'd fully rubbed it in, it felt like my face was tightening. After it had soaked in all the way it did start to sting my face. Now the one I got was actually meant for sensitive skin, so this surprised me. I've tried the primer a few times since to see if it was just that time it happened, and it pretty much did the same thing every time. On occasions when my skin wasn't so dry, I could keep it on but I felt like it dried my skin out after a few hours which made my make-up cling in places it didn't normally, like around the sides of my mouth and between my brows. It doesn't do alot pore wise, but this primer isn't designed to fill in pores or fine lines, it's aim is to help longevity of your make-up.

Personally I wouldn't recommend this product for those with dry skin, as not only did it irritate my skin it also didn't do much in terms of making my make-up last longer. I found it made my foundation patchy around my jaw line and my chin as the day went on. This product has just sat and collected dust since. Because of the fact it felt quite drying on my skin, this product might be better for people with oily skin, but those of you out there with dry skin I'd say to definitely avoid.

I am abit biased though because the NIVEA MEN post shave balm is now one of my holy grail products. This product is available in most places but I bought mine from tesco. The retail price for this product is £5 for a 100ml bottle. Now comparing to the other primer which is £4.99 the extra penny is worth it as you get double the product. I use this as a primer every time I apply my make-up. Now this product obviously wasn't created to be used as a face primer, but it has glycerin as a main ingredient which helps your makeup stick. Glycerine helps the skin look hydrated and glowy as it attracts water and oxygen to the skin. This primer has a milky look to it and a very thin consistency, which makes it very lightweight. Primers which are more silicone based clog pores alot more but the NIVEA aftershave balm sinks into the skin, but not so much that it clogs up the skin. The smell is pleasent aswell, even though a few people have said they don't think it smells like anything I think it smells like aftershave. Now I know just the smell 'aftershave' is a very broad smell, but just imagine how a man smells when they've got ready for a night out and they've put on a lot of aftershave. That's what it smells like. When writing a blog, explaining smells is one of the hardest things, but I try my best.

When applied to the skin, it has a very cooling effect which is obviously expected as it's an after shave balm. You only need a small amount of this to use over your whole face. The best thing to do with this product is keep rubbing it into the skin, until it becomes tacky. This product doesn't irritate my skin which was a massive plus for my dry sensitive skin. But I think this product would also be good for those with oily skin. I love this product so much I have 2 bottles of it and I also bought my boyfriend one for Christmas. I recommend this product on a daily basis to everyone who can stand listening to my rambles for more than five minutes and I recommend this to all of you out there. Men or women this has benefits for both, and over time the glycerin in this product helps with anti ageing and now who doesn't want that, whether your a man or a woman.

I would fully recommend the NIVEA aftershave balm for all skin types, young or old and I would only recommend the NIVEA hydrating primer to those of you that don't have bad dry and sensitive skin.

The Power Of Makeup

I'm new to the blogging scene so this is going to be my first ever blog piece. The motivation behind my overall blog is definitely make-up, from finding dupes for different products, tips and tricks, to showing you my favourites from those under rated brands that are slowly appearing more and more in people's make-up bags. Alot of what I show will be more affordable products, and I will be doing a few make-up hauls here and there, I am only 20 years old after all and haven't won the lottery just yet, so I want to help you all with tips on how to get those cat walk looks but for half the price. I have alot of ideas for this blog and alot of ways I want to take it. So I'd like to introduce my first official blog post, The Power Of Make-up.

This first blog post is my opinions on how make-up in this day and age is perceived. This is inspired by you-tuber Nikki Tutorials who did a side by side comparison of her face with and without make-up to show the difference it can make. The message she had was that make-up is all about having fun and no one should feel bad for wearing it.

Here, I've done my make-up how I would on a daily basis. This isn't a full glam look, this isn't how I would wear my make-up if I went out. But I did it this way just to show the differences even a small amount of make-up can make. I don't have ring lights and a backdrop and a Canon DSLR camera, but you can see that the make-up look I've done helps with evening out my skin and opening up my eyes. This look just enhances my natural looks not completely changes them.

There's a few things that keep popping up in the media at moment, mainly social media, about people being made to feel ashamed about wearing make-up, because there's alot of people who say people only wear make-up to impress. But even when people DON'T wear make-up things are still said. I have personally had this happen to me so know full well both sides of the story. I've had days where I've had a little extra time in the morning for my make-up, so I add a little extra and get comments like 'who are you trying to impress'. Well the answer to that my friend, is no one. Not everyone has the barbie skin, no matter how much I wish on a star it's just not happening for me. You can see in the picture above that I have redness and my brows aren't prefect and I have some dry spots, but that's just me.

Well that's enough! Apply your make-up however you want! Whether that's full on glam or a simple natural daytime look. You apply 3 different shades of liquid lipstick to concoct the perfect shade for your skin tone, make-up is all about experimenting and finding what works for you personally, while also having fun with it. After all make-up is all about having fun and enjoying it. It's so easy to feel lost in the world of you-tubers and bloggers when it comes to having the 'right skills'. But now is the time to be showing off your skills. If want a sharp winged liner? You do that! You want that highlight to make you shine bright like a diamond? Then you lock and load that brush and sweep that highlight all over your face.

But even with all these new game changing products being released, the classics are still in play. I'm no make-up artist as we can see, I don't have a make-up train case with all my kit and I don't have the looks of Jennifer Lawrence. But that's not what make-ups about. No one makes the rules. So instead, just make your own. Whichever way you want to go with it when you sit down and look in your mirror, just HAVE FUN! After all, what's the point if you not enjoying it.

The world of make-up is being redefined into whatever we want it to be. It's time for the rules and the judgements to disappear.

The world of make-up in undefined!