High End Haul ft. MAC and YSL (SWATCHES)

Today I thought I'd feature a quick high end hall I did back from when I was in Norwich, I'd not bought makeup for over 2 months which is honestly shocking for me as I used to buy a new product every few days. I have been dying to get my hands on these products for so long, and after seeing a few other products I liked the look of I decided to have a little splurge! There will definitely be a review upcoming for the YSL 'Kiss and Blush' products and also my MAC lipstick collection should be posting soon as well - so keep your eyes out.

MAC

From MAC I went a bit wild and finally conquering how to line my lips without looking like a clown, I bought a few popular products amongst the beauty community. The first two were lipsticks being the popular shade 'Stone' and from the new MAC collection 'Whirl'. I also adore MAC's lip liners and could not resist buying the matching lipliner, in the shades; 'Stone' (got to match that lipstick), 'Stripdown' and 'Beurre'. 'Stripdown' is a lip liner Kylie Jenner is famous for and something I swatched in store and instantly fell in love with, much alike 'Beurre' which is a similar shade to Nars' 'Anna' audacious lipstick. 

YSL

I then went and got two of the Kiss and Blush products, after hearing so many rave reviews and seeing these two shades in real life. They-are-b-e-a-u-tiful. I got shades 9, and 10.

Swatches

L-R YSL Kiss and Blush in 9, 10, MAC Lipstick in Stone, Whirl

L-R MAC Lipstick in Stone, Whirl. MAC Lip Liner in Stone, Stripdown, Beurre

Thank you for reading,

Apologies I've been away for a while I've been moving back in to University!

My Top Two Favourite Refreshing Summer Sprays

Hey lovelies,

Today I thought I'd do a quick post featuring my two favourite - ever - face sprays!

I adore face sprays as I find they're quick, easy and super refreshing. I love using them during my skincare routine, morning and/or night, during the day and even over makeup to quickly hydrate my face. I have oily to combination skin and even though primarily these face sprays are for hydration and dry skin, I still find they work amazing with my skin! Especially, as the weather gets warm they're great for cooling the skin down, even more so if you're lucky enough to be going away somewhere hot this summer!

My first favourite is a drugstore offering and is by Lush! 'Eau Roma Water' {£7.95} is affordable and packed full of amazing ingredients, free of chemicals and perfectly suitable for sensitive skins. It mainly contains lavender and rose water which are amazing for calming and soothing the skin. I purchased this a few months ago and ever since I've completely adored it! It's great to use during the day to calm the skin down, but is also perfect morning or night as a toner in your skincare routine. Overall, I've been using it any time I can - especially because it's so affordable I won't mind when it finally runs out because I'll be straight out the door to purchase another one. I recommend this to all skin types as I feel any skin at any age would definitely benefit from this.

Second, is definitely a more higher-end product made by Caudalie. 'Beauty Elixr' {£11.50} is a well known within the blogger community for good reason. This spray is beautiful, smells delightful and the packaging is so gorgeous it would of sold me even if I hadn't known about the product itself. It features beautiful ingredients such as grape, orange blossom, rose, balm mint and rosemary. Another product to calm and soothe the skin. I prefer using this morning or during the day. It's great over or under makeup as it just seems to magically make my makeup sit so much better and removes any cakeyness that was going on. Honestly, if this works for Victoria Beckham then you know it's good!

A quick, extra honourable mention is Kiehl's 'Oil Eliminator' toner which is another great one, that's perfect at refreshing the skin - although doesn't have as many skin benefits as the two mentioned. Click here to view the review. 

Thank you for reading,

Please comment below if you know any face sprays that are great as I'd love to try out some more,

Clarins Iris Toner Review

Hey lovelies,

Today is a review of a toner by Clarins I've been using for months now, that I was recommended to use after having a facial.

Basic Information

Brand: Clarins

Name of Product: Toning Lotion with Iris

Purpose of Product: To tighten pores, purify and soothe the skin

Price: £19.50 | Link

Where to buy: Escentual, Boots, Debenhams

How Much Product Do You Get: 200ml

Aimed For: Combination to oily skin

Product Description

A lotion rich in soothing and purifying plant extracts which tightens pores and refreshes the skin.

How To Use

I use once in the morning and once at night, after I've finished cleansing, by applying a small amount on a damp cotton wool pad and gently swiping across my face.

Pro's

I personally really enjoyed using this cleanser - mainly because the smell is luscious! Also, the fact it didn't irritate nor string my sensitive skin, which leads me on to the fact it's alcohol free. A must for me. I felt it was perfectly suited for my skin type, and it lasted a long time - helped by the fact the lotion is green so you can tell how much you're applying onto the cotton pad. 

Con's

Although, on some days I found the toner to be a bit drying around my more dehydrated areas - specifically my cheeks. But, it wasn't a massive issue for me. But, when I went to research this product I discovered that this product is sadly full of fragrance (which helped that lovely smell) and other known irritants which would most likely confuse your skin and even though it had a few good ingredients they weren't in such small concentrations they wouldn't end up being as effective as desired. It's also quite expensive and is sadly tested on animals. 

Should I Buy It?/Do I Recommend?

Overall, I don't recommend it as it seems this product is all smell and no actual skin helping ingredients. I also found it didn't make a massive difference to my skin. 

Rating

4/10

Thank you for reading,
please don't forget to stay up to date by following me on bloglovin and other social media,

Battle Of The Primers - Round 2.0 {Review}

Hey Lovelies,

I thought I'd finally get round to reviewing a second set of primers as they are one of my all time favourite beauty products! I find they make such a difference to your skin and your makeup! Furthermore, my Battle of The Primers Round 1 | Link, is one of my most popular posts on my blog so I was dying to revisit the post! Also, if you are confused on what a primer is, how to use it or any other questions they will most likely be answered on my first primer post, but if not feel free to comment below!

Also if you're wondering why there's a lot of Seventeen products I'm not sponsored by them, I find they're just really cheap and was recommended to try both of them.

Primer 1 - Seventeen Skin Wow! 3 Way Highlighter £5.99

This is described as "Use to prime, add to your foundation, or apply onto cheek bones to lift, lighten and wake up your skin with a luminous glow."

I normally use this either under my foundation or mixed in with my foundation and I adore how lightweight it feels on the skin! I also find it doesn't add to my oilness - although I normally steer clear of applying it to my t-zone and use a mattifying primer there instead. It leaves my skin with a lovely, natural glow that is perfect any time of the year and the fact you only need a tiny amount for how cheap it is, is perfect!

Although, the only issues I have with it, is beginners need to be super careful with how much you use as if you end up pumping/applying too much it can leave your face looking like a disco ball.

But besides that slight issue which can easily be resolved with time I adore this primer!

I would recommend it to anyone and everyone - especially someone with dull skin that desires a quick pick me up!

4.5/5

Primer 2 - Seventeen Flawless Poreless Primer £5.99

This is described as "Apply with fingers allowing the silky primer to create a smooth canvas ready for foundation to glide onto".

Sadly this one didn't live up to the expectations I had built it up to, as even though it's extremely cheap like the other Seventeen primer and did leave the skin smooth, soft and silky I found it didn't help foundation apply any easier than usual.

I also found it didn't help enhance lasting time of my make-up, and my t-zone only remained matte for a few hours. It also didn't really hide any of my pores and I found I had to use quite a lot of the product to see an actual difference. Furthermore, I felt it left quite a similar feeling to the Benefit primer which I reviewed previously | Link, it also reminds me of the new YSL primer that has just been released. Even more so, I didn't like the fact you have to put your finger into the product to apply it, as I find it becomes quite unsanitary and it definitely isn't great for acne/sensitive prone skin.

I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone unless you have simple, normal skin and just want a cheap, easy to use primer to help aid foundation application.

2/5

Primer 3 - Nivea Daily Essentials Hydration Primer Normal/Combo £4.99

Nivea describes this primer as being "An even and smooth base for effective make-up application; helps your make-up stay put, absorbs instantly thanks to its light texture and uses an effective hydrator for lasting moisturisation."

Overall, I really like this primer and tend to use it around the more drier, dehydrated areas of my face - e.g. my cheeks. It leaves my skin much smoother, softer and supple which prevents cakiness and has a pleasant smell all nivea products have. I also like that it has built in skincare benefits as well.

I also have pretty much 0 negative comments to say about it besides the packaging, as the fact it's a jar makes it quite bulky and heavy to carry around and also it's quite unsanitary instead of something like a squeezey tube.

Besides that, I would recommend this product to pretty much anybody, especially as Nivea has also released one for people with sensitive/dry skin types. The only type I'm not sure it would suit is extremely oily skin types.

4/5

Primer 4 - Becca Line and Pore Corrector £14.99

Becca explains this as a "non-oily primer prior under-eye concealer, eye shadow, lip-liner application. Gives soft focus effect to minimise lines and refine visible pores. Free of paraben, preservatives and fragrance."

I normally use this as a normal, all over face primer - especially focusing on my oily areas (the dreaded T-zone), as I wasn't aware that it could be used specifically for other things so I'm definitely going to give it a go in other areas. But, for what I have been using it for I've had very mixed feelings about it.

As I love that it keeps my skin matte and oil/grease free for a decent amount of time. I also like that Becca doesn't put any nasties in their product, this is especially great for me as I have sensitive skin.

But, the feel it gives is extremely silicone-ey which I don't honestly love and I also feel it doesn't do anything for my pores. If anything, I feel after a few hours they're more visible than if I hadn't used the primer in the first place. I also find its pretty expensive for how little it does.

If I were to recommend this primer to anyone it would be more normal - combination skin types, especially anyone with sensitive skin that is trying to find a primer that won't upset their skin but still does something.

3.5/5

Overall, my favourite primer this time round was the 'Skin WOW' by Seventeen and I'm still loving using the Smashbox primer from the previous Battle of the Primers. 

I hope this was helpful and if you have any questions or recommendations don't hesistate to comment! Please also don't forget to follow me on social media - I follow back!

Love,