Review: Brut Tattoo Builder

I’ve been meaning to write up a review on the Brut Tattoo Builder for ages but I’ve been trying so many different things and have been so busy with the new uni semester that it just hasn’t happened until now.

I kept seeing ads for this and another similar product from Brut. I think it was called Tattoo Guard. Anyway, I kept seeing ads for them and being the proud owner of a wrist tattoo I was somewhat intrigued by the premise. I will also start off by saying I think I should have bought the Tattoo Guard instead of the Builder, but I’ll explain why in a minute. They were advertised as being treatments to preserve the original colours and crispness of your tattoos.

Here’s why I think I bought the wrong one. From what the packaging says, I think it might be designed more for newly acquired tattoos. I started mine in 2010 and finished it in 2011, so it doesn’t really have quite the vibrancy it did when it first healed. Don’t get me wrong, it still looks beautiful, and if it has faded it’s not all that noticeable because I chose quite muted colours anyway. But basically it’s a few years old now and that’s why I think I should’ve got the Guard instead of the Builder.

With that in mind, I didn’t notice any difference to my tattoo at all. I don’t feel like it was detrimental to its condition but I also don’t feel like it did anything but add temporary moisture to the area. I don’t know what the Guard one claims to do in comparison to this. I might have to pick up a tube and try it out.

As for the application, a little definitely goes a long way. It’s very runny and thin. It feels cool when you apply it, and even though I didn’t like the smell, I wasn’t overly offended by it either. The moisture it adds leaves a nice sheen to the area and until it wears down it does look somewhat vibrant but let’s face it, normal not-ten-dollar moisturiser will do the same thing and will probably last longer.

I don’t know how this will work on fresher tattoos, I guess I’ll have to wait and see if I ever get the chance to get one again. For me personally though, I just don’t really feel one way or the other about it. I honestly haven’t picked it up in weeks. I couldn’t even tell you where it is right at the moment. It’s a very uninspiring product for me, but then again, I might just have bought the wrong product in the line. 

Review: Too Faced HangoverX Primer

I’m not going to lie. I wrote this review a while ago and for some reason I didn’t post it. I could’ve sworn I did but obviously I was wrong. So here it is for you in all its late glory.

I bought the Too Face Hangover Primer a few weeks ago and have pretty much only used it since I got it. It’s a silicone free primer that has coconut water and a bunch of other good stuff for you skin in it. It’s $44AUD. I got mine from the Kit counter in Myer and you can also pick it up from Mecca Maxima. I know $44 is a lot to spend on primer, especially for someone like me who doesn’t really use primer all that much, but I’d heard so much about it in the weeks leading up buying that I just couldn’t resist.

I really wasn’t sure about this primer during the first few days of using it. I felt like it wasn’t hydrating enough for my dry skin, which at the time was crazy dry for some reason. I was expecting this to be almost serum-like because of the coconut water and electrolytes it’s supposed to contain. On my cheeks, nose and forehead it was perfectly fine, but my upper lip and chin areas seemed a little patchy. I was actually considering returning it in its first few days in my care. The only reason I didn’t was because of the longevity it gave my makeup.

I don’t like a lot of primers because I feel like they sit funny and cling to my dry patches. Before buying this primer I really only used primers in my T-Zone when I went to events or knew I was going to be out an about on very hot days. Most of the time I just slapped some moisturiser on and I was good to go. Honestly, priming just felt like another unnecessary step.

After forcing myself to give this a real go and switch up my moisturiser rather than return the primer I realised that the problem was more that my skin needed more TLC and not so much that the primer was crap. I have never used a primer so much in my life. I have pretty much used this every time I’ve worn makeup since I bought it and now I absolutely love it.

It smells amazing and feels so lightweight and fresh when I apply it. It wakes my tired cranky skin up. I’ve actually just put this on with a little bit of under-eye concealer on some days when I just need to pop up to the shops and it worked a treat. The beautiful coconutty scent and the fresh cool feeling it gives the skin is invigorating in the morning when everything feels like too much effort. I put this on and I feel okay about being out of bed and having to get ready to face the day. Seriously guys, it just feels good. It feels more like skincare than a makeup primer.

Once I got the hydration of my skin sorted this stuff works beautifully. I don’t get the dry patches I was getting in the first few days anymore and it’s hydrating elements makes my foundation look smooth and bright. Even when I mattify my foundation it still looks luminous and fresh.

Like I said before, I know that $44 is a lot of money to spend on a primer but I really recommend this one. I’ve tried a lot of primers and that’s why I generally shy away from them, but this one has just about reached HG status for me. I never thought a primer would do that for me, but I should’ve know that if there was a brand that was going to do it, it was going to be from Too Faced. Too Faced are seriously my favourite brand. I think I’ve loved everything I’ve tried from them so far. If you’re like me and you tend to shy away from primers because they cling to your dry patches I recommend at least getting a sample of this stuff, it may just surprise you!

Urban Decay Launch at Mecca Maxima!

It’s official! Urban Decay has finally landed in Australia! Mecca Maxima online store and their stores all over the country launched the brand at 9:00 am this morning. I went to my local store at Westfield Garden City here on Brisbane’s south side and was lucky enough to be able to have a chat to one of the beautiful staff members, Tamara. She was kind enough to let me ask her a few questions and I had a chance to browse and give in to one of the lip glosses (more to come about that in a minute!). Just a warning: this is going to be a long post. Today was a very exciting day for me!

I was thankfully stuck in a uni lecture this morning and missed all the craziness of the opening at the Garden City store. According to Tamara there were over 100 people waiting by 8:00 am. “We had people turning up at about 5:00 am, which was commitment, you know we weren’t expecting people to really turn up until about 7:00 am,” she said. I can’t even comprehend a crowd that big for a makeup brand that is launching permanently. I’m glad that it was far less crazy when I went this morning.

The setup is fairly standard for Mecca stores, but this isn’t to say it wasn’t beautiful. They had everything sorted in a way that made it look shiny, appealing and basically just fabulous. I was very pleased with the range of products they had. I really didn’t know what to expect. Mecca was very good at being coy about what products they were getting. The advertising was heavily focussed on the Naked line. Mecca has most of the things that most people would be wanting to try out. They of course got the Naked stuff like the three big palettes and two Basics palettes, the foundation and concealer, the powders and the Flushed palettes. Bright colour lovers will fawn over the Electric palette. Here’s what Tamara had to say about the Electric palette:

“It definitely can look a little bit scary at first. The colours are beautiful and so workable as well. And you can use it in multiple ways. I’ve used it as a hair chalk. I got to play around with that a little bit and turning them into lip glosses or lip stains. So they’re super pigmented, but used in all those different ways, it’s just amazing. Even taking that electric green, because I know it can be a little scary looking at that, it’s so bright, but it just adds that pop of colour to everyday wear. Lots of people like to use the white in the inner corner, but that green just opens up the eye and just makes it pop. I like it because it’s really whatever you’d like it do. If you’d like to make your own lip glosses or stains, or if you’d like to use it as hair chalk. I mean, even in dark hair it’s so pigmented.”

After hearing her thoughts on the palette my thoughts are cemented in my desire to have it in my life… and soon!

 Until today I’d only ever tried one UD product and that’s the Naked Basics palette which I got last year. It’s one of my favourite palettes of all time though. It’s just amazing, so I knew I was in for a treat with any products I bought in the future! I asked Tamara what her favourite products were. Understandably it was a very hard choice! “I love it all! I’m excited to try the foundation. I haven’t had the chance to try it yet, so that’s one of my must-tries. I’m loving the Naked 2 palette and also the All-Nighter setting spray. Just using it multiple ways as well. It’s definitely a setting spray for 16HR wear, but I also like to spray my eyeshadow brush and then go in with my shadow and it just makes it more pigmented and really just lovely and creamy to work with,” she told me.

I personally wasn’t overly excited about the Naked palettes. I know, I know! How could I not be?! Honestly, I was all about tracking down the original one for ages last year, but then I found the Chi Chi Nudes palette and I lost interest in the UD one. The Naked 2 and 3 didn’t interest me all that much either just because I didn’t find the shades to be ones I would use regularly. Cut to me checking out the real life palettes in-store today. I was right about the Naked 2. I just wouldn’t use the shades, but the Naked 3. Can we just stop so I can take a moment to picture it again in my mind. It is exquisite. It’s filled with rosy and rose gold-y shades. I never imagined that I would love it so much, but now I desperately need it in my life!

 

Let’s talk about pricing. I know Australia has become notorious for having ridiculously price makeup, among other things. This is why I’m happy to see that Mecca has made UD reasonably priced. It may seem expensive at first glance, but when you compare it to U.S. pricing and factor in the exchange rate it works out fairly even. “It’s somewhere from I think maybe a $2 to $6 difference and with some products it actually cheaper. When you think about having to buy it online and then you have to think about shipping and the exchange rate, I know it’s a struggle sometimes. You can’t even get shipping to Australia sometimes and you have to use external shipping. It can become super expensive just to have it shipped here. It’s nice to be able to give our customers a nice easy way to shop,” Tamara said when I asked for her view on the pricing. Check below for a little list of UD products and pricing from the Mecca website.

Eye look using 24/7 Pencil in LSD

The products I got today were: Naked Ultra Nourishing Lipgloss in Walk of Shame, 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in LSD (sample size) and a sample of the Naked Skin Foundation in the shade 0.5. I’ll do a first impressions on the foundation sometime next week, when I get the time, but I was able to try out the gloss and the pencil this afternoon before I head back to uni. The gloss, which I purchased myself, is a beautiful peachy/coral shade. It’s not completely sheer, but it just gives a nice flush to the lips. I wore it on the top of my nude Essence lip pencil. I’ll write up a full review on it over the weekend once I can wear it a little more. The eye pencil is a great colour too. It’s a deep dark blue with lighter blue shimmer through it. I really loved how it looked with the eye look I did. I swiped it across the upper lashline, smudged it out and then added a little bit of Crave from the Naked Basics palette over it. This colour pencil has helped me fall in love with blue/silver eyeshadow looks again!

Finished look with Pencil and Gloss

My last question for Tamara was about which product she would recommend to a newcomer to makeup. This is what she had to say:

“Honestly, I’d probably start them off with one of the eyeshadow potions, purely because it makes such a difference. And for someone just starting out and learning how to do their eyeshadow it just makes it so much easier to work with. It just creates a really blank canvas. Some of the potions, like Sin, which is beautifully champagne and pigmented then adds that colour without you having to do a lot to the eye look. So, I think starting yourself out with one of the eyeshadow potions is great because I think your going to find it easier to work with, really simple to build you confidence as well and just to see that longevity and have it stay there all day makes it a good one to start off with.”

Overall it seems like the UD launch at Mecca was a success. Mecca has done a great job in their advertising, pricing and in obtaining a fantastic variety of products. I want to say a big thank-you to the girls at Mecca Maxima at Westfield Garden City for always being so helpful and kind. And a massive thank-you to Tamara for taking the time to talk to me on such a crazy busy day! You were absolutely beautiful to chat to and I really appreciate it!

If you live in the area pop in and check out UD at Mecca Maxima Garden City and say hi to all the wonderful staff members! If you don’t live near a Mecca Maxima store there’s always the internet. You can check out UD and all Mecca’s other awesome brands at: www.mecca.com.au

Here’s a list of some of the products Mecca launched today!

Naked 1,2 & 3 palettes - $78 each

Naked Basics 1 & 2 - $42 each

Electric palette - $70

Naked Skin Foundation - $56

Naked Skin Concealer - $36

Original Eyeshadow Primer Potion - $30

All Nighter Long-Lasting Makeup Setting Spray - $44 (4.0 fl oz.)

Naked Ultra Nourishing Lipgloss - $30

24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil - $30

There’s a ton more products to check out on the site and in-store!

What are some of your favourite products or some of the products you’re dying to try out? Let me know! 

+Mecca Maxima 

Chats: Happiness Jar

On Facebook I follow Elizabeth Gilbert, the woman who wrote ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ and over the last year or so I’ve noticed a lot of feeds about Happiness Jars. The concept behind these jars is that at the end of every day you write down the best thing that happened to you that day on a small piece of paper and put it in a jar. It’s supposed to help you see that even the crap days have positives, or at least show you how to pull a positive out of a pile of negatives. It also helps to dig into it on terrible days and pull out a random positive thing to remind you that this bad day is just one day in your life and there have been and will be more positive things.

 

Over the last few months I’ve been feeling really down and was fearful of falling back into the depression I’d spent years crawling out of. So on January 1^st I decided to start my own Happiness Jar. Initially I had more of a Happiness Tin because that’s all I could find. I just write my positives down on Post-Its, fold them up and put them in my tin/jar.

Its affect it had on my mood was really surprising. By forcing myself to find positives in each and every day I found myself feeling happier and less negative. Of course there have been days when it was harder to find the positive, but that made the discovery of one even more rewarding.

I know this all might sound really wishy-washy. I know it did to me every time it came up on my Facebook feed, but it has really done wonders for me in the last couple of months. I haven’t missed a day and it just feels good to think about the positive things that have happened throughout each day. I’m also finding myself feeling more relaxed and thinking more positively in general. This is not just from the Happiness Jar alone, but I know it has been a major contributing factor. At the start of the year I made myself a list of goals and maintaining the jar was one of them. I’m so proud of myself for sticking to it. It’s such a simple goal and it would’ve been really easy to give up on it. I’m glad I didn’t.

I’m thinking about doing a sort of belated New Year goals post soon to kick of a series about how I’m going in achieving them. I’d love some feedback to see if that’s something that would be interesting or not! Until then I’m off to write up today’s positive!

Review: Insurgent

After many months of waiting I finally got to see ‘Insurgent’, the second instalment of the Divergent series last Thursday. I loved the first movie so much it prompted me to head straight to the book store and buy the pack of three books plus the additional book she wrote from the character Four’s perspective. I read the three Divergent books in about a week and still craved more. Of course now I’ve seen the second movie I’m still left unsatisfied because there are two more movies left. Yes that’s right, it’s just another series squeezing as much money out of us as possible by splitting the final instalment into two parts.

Before I get into my thoughts on the movie I’ll give those of you who don’t know a little bit of info on what it and the series is about.

The series surrounds the story of main character Beatrice ‘Tris’ Prior, a young girl living in a dystopian future. She resides in an old destroyed Chicago where the population believe themselves to be the last left in the world. Their society is divided into factions based on their dominant personality traits.

The factions are:

Abnegation – the selfless faction;

Amity – the kind faction;

Candor – the truthful faction;

Dauntless – the brave faction; and

Erudite – the intelligent faction.

Each faction has its duty within the society in order to keep it functioning properly. When each person comes of age they must undergo a test that will tell them their most dominant personality trait, information they then take with them to the choosing ceremony. In the choosing ceremony they decide whether they will remain in the faction they grew up in or move to another, forsaking their familial ties.

During her test Tris discovers that she actually has at least four dominant traits making her a Divergent. Divergents are considered a threat and are being systematically eliminated throughout the first and second instalments. In ‘Divergent’, Tris chooses Dauntless and learns to be strong while discovering her own unique bravery. She works desperately to not only prove herself to the faction leaders, but also to keep her divergence a secret for fear of being killed. Everything comes to a head when the leader of the Erudite faction makes a power play and begins actively seeking out Divergents.

‘Insurgent’ picks up pretty well straight after ‘Divergent’. Tris, her boyfriend Four and a couple of others have taken sanctuary in the Amity camp. In this instalment you meet the factionless and discover a lot more about them as well as getting to see the inner workings of Candor, which was previously undiscovered territory in the first instalment. Erudite has taken control of the city and are hunting down Divergents. She has made Tris and her group public enemy number one and they now need to find a way to stop her and clear their names.

Now I’ve rambled enough about the plot I guess I should get into the review part of this review.

I have a warning to those who have read the book and have not yet seen the movie. It has some major plot differences from the book. In fact the main Erudite mission in the movie is completely different from the book. In the movie Jeanine and her Erudite and Dauntless followers are trying to open a box found in Tris’ parents’ house in Abnegation. She needs a strong Divergent to accomplish this. I won’t go into too much detail because I don’t want to have to add *Spoiler Alert* at the top of this review. As those who have read the book would already know, the box isn’t in the book and the thing that is inside it is something Jeanine is already aware of and desperate to keep hidden. Her mission in the book is to create serums that work on Divergents like the ones each faction as created for their own people. That’s just one of the many changes that the moviemakers made to the story.

Now you’ve been warned I can tell you how much I actually really liked the movie. I spent a better part of the movie not being sure about whether I liked it or not because of all the noticeable differences from the book. The second book was definitely my favourite of the three and it was a little shocking to see it so picked apart and changed. Honestly, it really wasn’t even until after it was over and we were driving home that I began to feel some sort of appreciation for it. On the way home I was talking about it with my sister and cousin, who I’d gone to see it with and I found that the more I talked about it the more I liked it.

It’s been a few days of mulling it over now and I have to say that I really, really like it now. I’m not going to go as far yet as to say that it was better or even as good as the first one, I think that will take at least one more viewing, but it definitely has grown on me. I think I was unsure about it initially because of all the changes. There were characters left out and even a main character who remained nameless throughout the movie and only played a small role. I mean, at least he was in this one since he wasn’t in the first one but was in the books from the start. Also, if I think about it too much it kind of feels like the major plot change only happened in order to give Kate Winslet a bigger role. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing more with giving her character more screen time, it adds drama plus she’s awesome (Winslet, not Jeanine. Jeanine’s kind of a bitch). The thing I wonder is that if that was a defining part of the decision to change the plot why couldn’t they have just played around with the original plot to give Jeanine more story time?

I think this movie follows on really well from the first. It doesn’t feel disjointed from it, which would have been hard to avoid with all the changes they made. Nothing feels incomplete except the end obviously, because there’s two more movies to come. If you haven’t read the books you won’t notice anything odd about the flow of the story at all, which I think is a definite plus. There are so many movies out there that alter book stories so much they become unrecognisable and they are just poorly executed. I’m really happy to report that this is not one of those cases.

The movie is definitely not devoid of action, which is awesome. There’s a lot of battle-type scenes both in reality and the serum simulations just as with the first movie. Despite the fact that the whole mystery box plotline didn’t happen in the book, it’s actually a really good plotline. It brings about a reason for Tris to face the serum simulations again and this time they are even better than before.

I’d better wrap this up before I make it five pages long. Overall I really did end up liking this movie. Yes it’s very, very different from the book, which sucks a bit, but the movie people made up for it a bit by making the new stuff really interesting. If you feel pretty adamant about movies that change the book too much I might suggest giving this a miss, but if you can keep an open mind about it I would definitely spend the money to go and see this on the big screen. It’s truly a good movie and really the only thing that has let it down a bit for me is the difference from the book. For this movie though, I’m willing to suck up my pride and give it my praise.

Review: VO5 Give Me Texture Powder

Today’s beauty related review is of the VO5 Give Me Texture Instant Oomph Powder. Basically it’s a little 7 gram bottle of texturizing powder. It’s supposed to give extra texture and instant volume. I’ve been using this powder for a while off and on, so I feel like I have a pretty clear view on how I feel about it.

One really good thing I notice about it right off the bat, looking at the bottle right now is how slowly it goes. I’ve had mine for close to a year and I’ve only used about a third of it. I’m sure I would have used a bit more if I used it more frequently, but still, it’s impressive.

Now onto the powder itself. It seemed like a really light powder in the bottle, but on my hair it feels sort of heavy and can be a little greasy feeling. Let me say this though, I do get greasy hair quite easily, so this is of no surprise to me at all. It definitely gives a good amount of volume when I aply it to my roots, although I’m not impressed by its ability to texturize, or lack thereof as it were. I’ve much better products for texturizing than this product, but if you’re more looking for volume without the need of hairspray this might be worth a try.

Overall I’m not too fussed on this stuff. It’s not horrible by any stretch of the imagination, but I definitely won’t bother repurchasing it once I run out. It definitely gives me the volume I want, but I don’t like that I end up just using my Rough Texturiser to get my desire messy look. I honestly think there are better products out there, for me at least. I just think this one makes my hair too greasy and doesn’t do enough to outweigh that negative. 

Review: 'Yes Please' by Amy Poehler

Hey everyone!

I hope you’re enjoying my brand new look, I know I am! I’ve decided that the first post to grace the pages of my swanky new blog is going to be a review of Amy Poehler’s ‘Yes Please’.

Amy’s book covers her life told in no real chronological order. She covers all aspects of her life and experiences. It’s a really no holds barred look through Amy’s eyes. She’s brutally honest about everything including herself, while retaining the sense of humour that has taken her so far in her career.

First let’s talk about the style that the book was printed in. It’s big and glossy. It’s got lots of photos and other things from Amy’s life. She has added two-page spread colourful pages with quotes to break up the sections in the book, which I find really cool. It’s a nice way of seguing into the next part. My personal favourite is “Short people do not like to be picked up”, which immediately precedes the chapter ‘The Russians are Coming’. And for those of you who are wondering, yes it’s true, we do not like to be picked up.

I cannot tell a lie, I almost judged this book by its cover. It’s so big and glossy that I was worried that it might lack substance. I love Amy Poehler, but I was worried about how her talent and sense of humour would translate into a memoir of sorts. I am the first to admit how wrong I was. Although this might not be perfectly written it is by no means a difficult read. She’s witty, honest funny and serious, sometimes all at once. I especially loved reading about her early comedy days, when she was discovering her footing and testing the waters.

Amy makes herself so relatable throughout the book. I love that her stories aren’t chronological order, but rather are told as they relate to the previous one. They’re funny but each one comes with a message of its own that you can take and do what you will with. She’s inspiring in a real way, not in an unattainable way like so many others we have come across.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I’ve been really in to reading memoirs from funny smart women lately and this definitely fits that bill. Next book review should be ‘Wild’ by Cheryl Strayed so stayed tuned!

February Favourites

Welcome to a slightly belated February Favourites! Please forgive the lack of photos in this month’s post. If I’m completely honest, I’m typing this at 11:18pm and really don’t want to get up and set up the little corner I use to take the pics. I’ll be more prepared next time. Scouts honour!

Let’s get into the good stuff!

NARS SHEER GLOW FOUNDATION (SIBERIA):

After trying quite a few different foundations over the month I came to truly appreciate Sheer Glow and the way it treats me. This foundation doesn’t ever fail me. I can apply it however I want. Sometimes I’m lazy and just use my fingers, other time I like a dense buffing brush, then there are the times I like a looser brush and of course we can’t forget the almighty blending sponge (both the Beauty Blender and the RT Miracle Complexion Sponge). I just love this stuff. I’m now onto my second bottle and the couple of months I went without it sucked. I’m just glad I finally realised my true feelings for this little bad boy before I wasted more money on others that will never measure up.

TOO FACED NATURAL EYES PALETTE:

This has been my go to palette since I bought it. The colours are so beautiful and pigmented. I love that it has a great balance of finishes so you can create amazing day-night looks. I’ve even been using the darkest matte brown shade to fill in my brows, which says a lot because I usually prefer the gel method of brow filling. This is just an amazing palette!

TOO FACED MILK CHOCOLATE SOLEIL BRONZER:

Yep, another Too Faced product. This stuff is great. I love the finish it leaves and the colour is spot on for my pale complexion. It’s not too orangy, reddish or ashy. It gives my face colour and dimension without looking like my foundation it just too dark for me. Oh and the smell!! It’s everything something made from cocoa powder should smell like!

TOO FACE HANGOVER PRIMER:

Last Too Faced product I swear! I really like this stuff. I was a bit unsure of it at first (as I’ll discuss in the upcoming review), but I’m definitely enjoying it now. It’s nice and hydrating. Plus I love the coconutty scent it has. It makes my skin feel glowy and rejuvenated.

CIRCA HOME PEAR & LIME SCENTED SOY CANDLE:

I had a sample of this a while ago and after Christmas I use some of my present money to pick a full sized one up. I absolutely love the smell of this. I smelled all of the other ones like this that they had in stock and I honestly didn’t really like any of them. There’s just something about the Pear & Lime that is so yummy to smell. I can’t even describe the scent, mainly because I suck at describing scents, but trust me it smell delicious!

VERONICA MARS BOXSET:

I must have been living under a big fat rock, because up until last month I had never seen even one episode of this show. I’d been wanting to watch the movie for ages, but figured I’d need to be familiar with the show first. Once I finally got around to watching it I couldn’t stop. I’m pretty sure I watch all three seasons and the movie in about two weeks. I was obsessed. Who am I kidding, I’m still obsessed. After all, wasn’t it me downstairs tonight watching all the episodes again with my sister, who coincidentally is now addicted too. I feel like the embodiment of that Big Bang Theory Penny meme. You know the one… Oh my God, I need help!

Review: NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation

This is only going to be a short one today because my relationship with the NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation was just that: short. Sorry about the lack of photo, it wasn’t in my house long enough for a photo-shoot!

I was first given the wrong colour of this foundation, and had to track down the proper shade. It was a rocky beginning. The day after I tracked down the right shade I had the opportunity to try it out.

Guys… I can’t even begin to tell you how awful it was on my skin! It went patchy and flaky. I applied it three different ways. I applied with just moisturiser, with moisturiser and my Too Faced Hangover primer (review coming very soon) and also with my Savvy Smooth Finish primer on top of double the amount of moisturiser and nothing prevented the dry grossness that the foundation created on my face. I wouldn’t even wear it outside. It felt like a mask on my face. Almost like a clay mask. It accentuated my dryness that much. I’ve never had a foundation do this ever. Not even a matte one, let alone one that claims to be luminous like this one.

I read and watched so many raves on this stuff and I was so excited to try it for myself. One of my favourite foundations of all time is the NARS Sheer Glow. It is the liquid foundations that I expect all others to strive towards, so it seemed like a no-brainer that the new NARS one would at least come close. Now here I sit in utter defeat and disappointment.

I can’t attest to whether or not it actually lasts the amount of time it claims to, how it wears throughout the day or anything like that. Like I said, I couldn’t bring myself to go outside looking the way it made me look, so I removed it immediately and went out and bought the foundation I should have got in the first place, a new bottle of the Sheer Glow.

I’m not sure what it was about my skin that cause such a bad finish to the foundation. Honestly I was so surprised and I truly believe that most people will probably love it. I think I just wasn’t meant to have it in my life. I will say this: definitely get a sample of this if you can. It’s one thing to try it on in store with their skincare products, but it’s another to take it home and see how it works with your own skincare and primers, etc. ‘Try before you buy’ is a saying for a reason!

Review: Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Bronzer

I’m not really a huge bronzer girl. I’m far more partial to blushes and highlighters. This is mainly because, with my pale skin, I’ve always been a little afraid of bronzers. Contouring is one thing, but bronzers have a tendency to either run too red or too orange on my basically white skin. I’ve only ever found two bronzers that haven’t given me too much trouble. I have the Bronze Goddess from Estee Lauder. It’s in Medium, so a really careful light hand is needed when I crack it out. The other is the E.L.F. Bronzer in Sun Kissed. Sadly that bronzer met a tragic end at my Grandma’s place over Christmas. It smashed when I dropped my M.A.C. Pro Palette (thankfully is was the only thing). I was going to get another one, but I haven’t been able to find it again. So a couple of weeks ago I decided to try out the Milk Chocolate Soleil from Too Faced.

This is such a nice bronzer for pale skin. I personally have more yellow than pink undertones in my skin colour and sometimes the cooler toned browns look a little ashy on me. On the other hand, being so pale can create some very red or orange tones on me and let’s face it, nobody wants to look like either a tomato or an Oompa Loompa (although that’s just me speculating, if you do enjoy rocking these looks more power to you!). This bronzer, although it looks very warm doesn’t leave any unnatural colours on my skin.

Okay, so the smell. If you haven’t smelled the cocoa powder stuff from Too Faced go to your cupboard right now, find some cooking cocoa and take a big whiff. Don’t worry, I’ll wait…. Okay good, now you know the smell I’m talking about you know how delicious this stuff is. It’s made with cocoa powder and I could sniff it forever. I know everyone says this, but it’s for good reason. The cocoa powder also makes the formula super smooth and gives it a buttery texture. Even though it’s a completely matte bronzer, it in no way looks so matte that it looks unnatural. I’m not one for a harsh contour or anything, especially since I usually just stick to blush, but this stuff has converted me to the side of bronzers. I haven’t done my makeup without it since I bought it.

Overall this is a massive hit for me. I’m so glad that Too Faced expanded they’re Chocolate Soleil bronzer line to include one for pale skin. They’ve earned some serious brownie points from me. It’s why I’m pretty sure they’ve taken out the title of my favourite high-end brand.