My May Favourites!

It's that time again when I do my favourites of the month. I have been a complete geek this month and actually wrote them down as I went along. I will start with the product I have fallen in love with.

Yves Saint Laurent Lipstick in Tea Rose - Love, love love it! I brought this because it's an absolutely gorgeous colour. It is a nude with a pink undertone and is the nicest colour on me. It took me by surprise that not only does a lipstick suit me this well but the fact that this is now my no 1 lipstick! Does anyone know whether this is limited edition? It's £20 but I will stock up if need be.

Benefit's Dallas - I have had this since last year and I just adore it. This requires a very light hand when applying it because I'm quite pale but it does leave me a gorgeous bronzed colour. This is not something I wear in the winter but over the summer months, this gives me a gorgeous glow. This is my no1 bronzer!

Maybelline Mineral Blush in Moonlight Mauve - This is really pretty, it's a pink mauve and when applied on the cheeks it leaves you with a gorgeous soft pink sheen. This is possibly one of my favourite blushes. These Maybelline blushes are really good, I also have Plum Alchemy and I'm impressed with both of them.

Gosh Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Silver Screen - What can I say apart from the fact it's silver and I love silver. I wear this with a flesh coloured eyeshadow and I love it! It's great as a quick make up look because it looks really pretty.

Mascara of the month: Maybelline's Lash Stiletto - This has been the mascara I have reached for everyday over the last month and it has never disappointed me. It gives great length and curl and makes my lashes stand out.

My favourites that are still going strong from last month:
Mac's Perfect Topping - I still reach for this everyday, it is turning into my 'go to' highlighter.
Lily Lolo Mineral Foundation - I go to this everyday, this is now my HG foundation.
Mac's Satin Taupe - This is one of my favourite eye shadows. I never would have expected a taupe brown to ever reach the top of my list. But it has.

As I am a Mascara Fiend…

…I had to try Maybelline’s Lash Stiletto.

I did a post last month where I gave you my top three mascaras and I would say that this would replace one of my three. This mascara gives great length and separation and doesn’t clump yet it does thicken your lashes. It doesn’t give you great amounts of volume, I think it gives more curl, length and separation as opposed to volume but I think it gives my lashes a great amount of length. I am really pleased with it, it doesn’t irritate my eyes and it doesn’t flake although I think it smudges a little bit by the end of my working day. This would replace my Clinique High Impact Mascara as one of my three and I would repurchase Stiletto over the Clinique mascara. I'm so fickle...

I’m thinking about buying Bourjois’ Night Clubbing next because I have looked at the brush and it’s just like Mac’s Plush Lash and seeing that I loved that mascara (and I think it’s the brush and the way you use it why that makes that mascara work so well) that I might try this because it might not irritate my eyes! Have any of you guys tried this mascara?

My Top 3 Mascaras

I have decided to go ahead and choose my favourite mascaras at this point in time. I say that because I want to try some others that might completely blow me away (chance would be a fine thing, I think what I am looking for in a mascara is one that will basically act like false eye lashes and to be honest is that ever going to happen?)

Anyway the three that I have chosen are:

Max Factor’s False Lash Effect – I brought this mascara in January and I remember not being that impressed the very first time I used this (I think this stems to the whole false eye lash thing I always expect) but after that I thought it was one of the best mascaras I have ever tried. I use this most days now, it is a little hard to remove but I now feel it’s worth it.

Yves Saint Laurent Volume Effect Faux Cils – I know that everyone raves about this mascara and with good reason – it is perhaps the closest I have got to my natural lashes looking their best. I love this mascara, I would repurchase this over and over again if it wasn’t a high end brand (it costs about £20) and I found it had a very short life of about 1-2 months.

Clinique High Impact Mascara – This was a tough choice for me for two reasons. I wanted to choose Mac’s Plush Lash but thought I can’t really because this irritates my eyes and it doesn’t seem right to choose something as a favourite when I can’t really wear it (I still do though from time to time because I do love it and I want to make sure about the whole eye irritating thing – and yes I am still correct). Anyway, back to this mascara, it was also a tough choice with Maybelline’s Define-a-Lash as well so I wore one on each eye this morning and decided on this Clinique one as it adds more length, separation and makes my lashes look fuller. I find that Define-a-Lash adds separation and length but no volume (and I am using the pink one, the one that is supposed to add volume). Clinique's High Impact mascara used to be one of my favourite mascaras when it first came out and I think it still is.

The next mascaras I want to try are a couple of higher end brands and they are Diorshow Blackout, Lancome’s Hypnose and also Maybelline’s Stiletto. I think I will always be on the look out for the next fantastic mascara even though I have found some great ones! I don’t think I will ever change.

A Few of My February Favourites!

I thought I would do a post on the make up products I have been using and loving in February.

MaxFactor False Lash Effect - I have been swapping between mascaras at the moment, I have been swapping between Maybelline The Colossal, Clinique's High Impact mascara (which I remember it being one of my favorites but when I brought this recently and used it, it didn't give the results I thought I remembered) and my newest buy Maybelline Define-a-lash, the pink one. I tried my MaxFactor mascara again on Thursday and because I had been changing my mascara around, I realised this this was the best mascara for me, giving my lashes lots of volume and really making them stand out.

MeMeMe Beat the Blues in Sun Beam - I have been using this since I brought it (I brought it a week ago) and love it as a highlighter, I think I actually prefer this to my Benefit High Beam. I am going to buy the MeMeMe pink one so I can make a like for like judgement.

Laura Mercier Oil Free Tinted Moisturiser - I have been wearing this a lot for work lately and really like it, it gives a sheer coverage and my skin doesn't react to it, I don't get any break outs with this and my skin feels comfortable.

Nars Oil Free Foundation - I have been wearing this as well and again I love this because it works well with my skin and I don't break out with this foundation. I guess I have worked out that even with acne prone skin, I can find products that don't necessarily lead to me breaking out in spots.

MAC Technakohl Liner - I love using this on my waterline, it's quick and easy to use and lasts for ages. Since I have discovered this, I have been lining my waterline everyday.

Nars Laguna and Deep Throat - I use both of these together and I love the way they look. Deep Throat is a gorgeous colour and looks great on my cheeks, when I pair this with Laguna, my face looks healthy and vibrant.

On another note, I finally got Bobbi Brown: The Make Up Manual through the post on Saturday which I had been waiting for for a month and I have to say my first impression is that it looks like it's going to be a really good book. It looks like it going to cover a whole range of areas from basics to complicated skills. I can't wait to get stuck in.

What are your favourites at the moment?

Mascaras, Mascaras, Mascaras

I have been trying a few mascaras out recently and thought I would do a quick review on what I thought to each of the ones I have tried.

Too Faced Lash Injection – I was really excited about trying this mascara, I had heard great things about this mascara and a formulation that I had not heard of before – that it puts little tubes around your lashes to give a false lash effect. I thought this was a complete disappointment, I don’t think it curled my lashes or added any volume, I don’t think it did anything for my lashes apart from clump them together. (It’s also very hard to remove and didn’t seem worth it!).

L’oreal Beauty Tubes – I tried this in hope that it would be a better version of the Too Faced Lash Injection, but to my dismay, this was even worse. I did the first step using the primer which I thought went on fine. Then when I applied the next coat, I found it was clumping my lashes, adding no volume or curling to my lashes. It felt like I was adding loads of mascara but all this seemed to do was clump them up. My lashes looked a mess and I haven’t used it since. Again, this was very difficult to remove.

Mac’s Plush Lash – I brought this mascara because I had heard that the brush is very different to other mascara brushes. It has a flat side that you use first to coat your lashes with the mascara and then the plush side (the bristled side) that you then use to curl and lift your lashes. I loved this mascara; I found it curled my lashes, gave them volume, separated them, I found it easy to remove and didn’t flake throughout the day. The only problem I had with this one was that it irritated my eyes and I don’t use it for that reason.

L’oreal Voluminous – On my quest to find great mascara (as good as Plush Lash) that didn’t irritate my eyes I had heard amazing things about this mascara. Overall, I found this mascara quite good, it did give lots of volume to my lashes, give lift but I also found that it sometimes clumped my lashes (this is not every time I have used this mascara but it does happen). I didn’t find this mascara very good at separating my lashes and found it could flake throughout the day.

Maybelline The Colossal – I was really pleased with this mascara. The main thing I noticed with this mascara was the way it separated and curled my lashes, it did add volume as well (not sure about 7x) but I guess with all the hype this mascara had received I expected it to be fantastic and my lashes to really stand out. I didn’t notice it flake or smudge and I would buy this again.

Maxfactor’s False Lash Effect – I really, really loved this mascara. I thought it curled my lashes, added volume and made them look longer( the benefit to this one is that my expectations were not too high because there wasn’t so much hype than with Maybelline’s The Colossal). I haven’t noticed any flaking or smudging, a little more difficult to remove than L’oreal Voluminous or Plush Lash but I still really love it! I would definitely buy this again!

Exceptionnel de Chanel – I think this is perhaps one of the best high end mascaras. I wore this on Saturday night to remind myself of what it was like and I have to say I was not disappointed. I thought this curled and separated my lashes as well as adding volume. I felt that my lashes really stood out when I used this mascara (I guess this what I expected from The Colossal), I’m not sure whether it is as good as Yves Saint Lauren’s Faux Cils but its pretty close…