Maybelline Baby Lips Electro Collection

Hey everyone!

This is just a quick post about these because they're currently on offer in the U.K!
Maybelline have come out with this collection of Baby Lips in time for summer, and if you love the original Baby Lips then these are definitely a must have! The colours are nice and bright for the summer months, and are quite nicely pigmented without being too in your face. They come in 4 colours here in the U.K, but I only managed to get my hands on 2 for now, Oh Orange and Strike A Rose:

Left: Strike a Rose, Right: Oh Orange

They come out quite glossy too which is a nice plus, all while leaving your lips soft and hydrated!

These are currently on offer at Superdrug at buy one get one half price which is really good but I'm not sure how long for!

Hope you guys are having a good day! xxx

Illamasqua Hydra Veil

Oh good lord. I am SO BAD at keeping this up I really am. BUT I REALLY WANT TO TRY! HNNNG! Well anyway hello again! Hope you're all well, here's an actual blog post! SHOCK HORROR.

This post is about something I've had for a little while now and I am so impressed with it deserves a special mention. Also before I bought it I was so confused to what it actually was, so hopefully this helps anyone out who felt the same as me!

The Illamasqua Hydra Veil:

These days with skin being the most important part of a make up routine, it's important to make sure it's in the best condition it can be before make up is even applied, thus the age of the primer was born! It seems everyone loves a good primer, a product with the ability to smooth over lines, reduce the appearance of pores and make your make up last all day. Which all sounds really, really great. But at least in my experience, seldom is that the case. It does depend on what kind of skin you have, oily, dry, combination, but so many of them out there just don't work. As I have very dry skin, I used to just rely on my moisturiser to give me the base for my make up, and that does work for my skin type, but I've been looking for something that does a little extra. I had seen this product before in the Illamasqua shop in London and on the website but I had no idea really what it was, if it was a primer, a serum, a moisturiser, not a scoob. So after a bit of reading (and the fact that it's under the "primer" section on the Illamasqua website) Sherlock here decided it was a primer, and went ahead and bought it. After having tried it for a few weeks and seeing what it does I would say...well I'll show you.

So it comes in a black screw top tub, with a little cover on the inside, separating the product from the lid. As soon as I opened the lid I understood why it needed the extra cover. When you first see it in the tub, it looks and moves around like a gel, transparent and slightly runny. Which is quite normal for a primer. But when you actually take some out of the tub it's almost a different story.

It's comparable to dipping a spoon into jelly. When you put the little spoon in (which is included in the tub) you take out a small chunk rather than having to attempt to scoop up a liquid. Which is a strange feeling, but stick with it. And by the way, the amount that's on the spoon there is enough to do my whole face and then some, the mileage you get from such a small amount is incredible.

This is what it looks like on the skin. As soon as it hits the skin it feels like it's starting to melt back into the liquid you saw in the pot. What the frig is going on you will possibly think at this point as I was, but keep sticking with it! On the Illamasqua website it says the best way to apply is with a brush however I just use my fingers and I find it works just as well.

This is what it looks like mid blend. At this point the consistency almost feels like water. When applied to your face, honestly the best way to describe it is like a drink of water for your skin. It absorbs it in an instant and leaves nothing behind, unlike other primers where you can often feel them sitting on top of the skin. Which is where I started to think "well how is that going to help?!" but again STICK WITH IT for another minute and you will see why. Once absorbed it has a cooling feeling, then a small tightening sensation. After that it's time to apply some make up yo!

So is it a primer? No. But also yes. What this product gives you is the ultimate base for your make up. It doesn't fill in lines or really reduce pores that much but the overall even-ness of your skin is 10 times better. Which in turn will make your make up last a bit longer anyway. Make up literally just glides onto the skin with ease, making you use maybe less foundation, concealer, powder etc than usual. In my opinion that makes it one of the best "priming" products out there.

Now what kind of skin is it good for? I would say all of them, but perhaps a little bit more so for dry skin. Like I said I have really dry skin so I put this on on top of my moisturizer and it works a treat, my skin isn't cracking up through the day as it usually does. If you have oily skin this on it's own without a moisturizer would work well too as it's still giving your skin moisture without leaving any residue.

Has anyone else tried this? What did you all think? Hope this explained it alright!

Thanks for reading!

xxx

GlamGlow tingling and exfoliating mud mask

So long time no see blogging world! It's been a while hasn't it? Life has been pretty hectic the past few months and I'll explain it all in another post but for now I'm here with a review of something that has become pretty popular in the past few months, and something I was lucky enough to get a sample of when I attended the QVC Beauty Bash in January:

The GlamGlow tingling and exfoliating mud mask. I work for a big high street store and have had so many customers come in asking if we have it in stock or if they can try it, and after about the 20th person asking I finally gave in and gave it a look up. And no wonder they've been looking, it has some stellar reviews, and a tagline claiming its "the best face mask in the world". To make a claim like that, you gotta be pretty frikkin spectacular in my book! So after thinking about it for a while and realizing I had a sample of it it was silly not to give it a go.

So this is what it looks like when it comes out of the pot:

Not the most attractive looking thing but looks can be deceiving! It's a really thick consistency with little bits of tea leaf in it, and doesn't have a particular smell to it. The directions on the website say to apply a medium layer with a foundation brush but as mine wasn't to hand and quite frankly I couldn't be bothered cleaning it after I just applied it with my fingers. After doing that I can see why the brush would be easier, it would give a more even application, but the fingers worked out just fine!

And now here we have a funky camouflage looking face! The mask goes on wet but it dries SUPER fast so you need to work quite quick with it. As soon as it starts drying, that's when you start to feel the tingling and tightning. And it really tightens. I mean REALLY tightens. I quite enjoyed the feeling but I can see why others wouldn't, because it almost feels like its pulling at the skin. I left it for about 10 minutes but it says 5-10 mins so its just personal preference.

I took it off with a facecloth and buffed it in circular motions while removing so I could get the exfoliation part of it. Once it's off my face still felt like it was on almost, my skin was really tight and it did feel a bit strange. But a good strange! My skin felt really soft to the touch too which is always a plus. I waited a little bit then put on a moisturizer and the tight feeling faded away, but even writing this 3 hours later I can still feel it slightly. Which I think is a good thing!

All in all I'm really impressed with this product so far. I'm going to continue to use it and see how it goes but as far as first impressions go I'm really impressed! You can buy it from QVC, Marks and Spencer and Love-makeup.co.uk, it's not exactly on the cheap side but if it delivers everything it says it does then it's worth it!

Anyone tried it? What did you think? Hope you're all having a good night!
xxx