Revlon Beyond Natural Skin Matching Makeup Review

First of all I love MAC studio fix foundation, I hate the whole paint aroma of it, but it does the job, it stays on all day and really evens out my skin tone, hides blemishes and imperfections. It does all this without feeling all that heavy on my skin, what more can I want from a foundation? Well I picked up my bottle of SFF during winter last year, my skin was as pale as it goes, but honestly I was really surprised to be “diagnosed” as an NW15. I’ve always thought of myself as a medium and thought I was looking at around an NC30. When I found out I was more around a 15, I went for NW rather than NC because although my skin is warm, I actually think it’s too warm, the yellow tones in my skin are really obvious and I wanted to counteract this on my face and have a neutral shade. Anyway, right now this foundation is far too pale for me. I don’t try to deliberately tan, I wear SPF every day, but gradually I’ve got darker. I don’t want to use SFF in summer because although it’s not very heavy, I feel it’s too much for the hot humid weather we’ve been having. I love my mineral foundation too, but I’ve kind of got accustomed to using a liquid and don’t feel I have adequate coverage if I haven’t used a liquid, I realise this is probably psychological but there are days when my skin really needs a boost. I’d seen this foundation when it was first released but didn’t feel a need to go out and buy it. One of the things that’s made me buy it this time is the fact it can match to your skin tone, obviously a major pro with me because of the problems I mentioned earlier about not knowing my foundation shade. Basically if you haven’t seen this foundation, it goes on a whitey/grey shade and when you rub it in, it blends to match your skin tone. I went for light/medium as medium seemed a tiny bit too dark, and I wanted to avoid any orangeness. I’ve used this for the past week now and seem to be getting on ok with it. I wanted to be more impressed with this foundation than I actually am though. I know Revlon is a great drugstore brand and their Colourstay foundation is up there with SFF, and if this was a bit cheaper, or made by Collection 2000, I’d really recommend this foundation. To get decent coverage from this I’d say I need to use at least twice as much as my MAC foundation, possibly even 3 times as much. For what it does I think it’s overpriced, I think about £9, mine was £2 off though. I mean it matches your skin really well, but unless you have perfect skin, that can be a bad thing, where you have red patches, they’re gonna come through pretty red too! Also if you have perfect skin, there’s really no need to wear foundation in the first place. I hate writing negative reviews, and I didn’t intend this to sound this negative but I always want to give you an honest opinion of products I’ve bought, whether it’s good or bad and think that’s the whole point of blogging, to me anyway. I’m not saying avoid at all costs, but if like me you’re looking for light coverage for the summer, you’re probably better off with a tinted moisturiser at a snippet of the cost. I will continue to use this though because like I mentioned before, with me it’s partly psychological and I feel my skin is too naked without a foundation. Maybe this foundation will eventually give me the confidence to realise I can actually go out with just a mineral foundation on.

Was anyone else disappointed by this foundation or has it worked for some of you?

Sleek I Divine Jewels Eyeshadow Palette

Continuing the love for Sleek, I thought I’d show you the second palette I picked up at the weekend. This one is called Jewels for its rich, deep colours.

As far as I can find out about this palette, it was released at the end of last year along with Acid. For some reason my local Superdrug only just decided to stock Acid within the last month, but I’ve still not seen this one. I picked this one up from a larger city store and I might go as far as to say I like it even more than Storm! While that palettes great, it has a lot of neutral colours you can wear on the lid, and much darker colours for the outer corner and the crease. The Jewels palette makes up for what it lacks, with much bolder colours you can work with to create a brighter look as dramatic as you feel.

None of the colours are duped from Storm, the champagne colour in this looks very similar but it’s a little darker, and the black is even blacker in this palette too! The consistency of the shadows is pretty much the same shimmery, pearlescent effect, with no matte colours besides black. The mint green is more sheer, as is the silver and gold. Where the other colours have an iridescent, almost two tone effect, these give just a sheer wash of one colour, they’re just as pretty though. I wouldn’t say buy this instead of Storm, but certainly alongside it to create a wider variety of looks. Swatches:

Sleek I Divine Acid Eyeshadow Palette

Whilst perusing the isles of Superdrug, I also noticed Sleek had a new eyeshadow I Divine palette. This is definitely not one for the faint hearted, I saw it (from a mile away), and approached with caution. These are some shocking colours!
I think because I’m aware of just how pigmented and vibrant Sleek eyeshadow turns out on the skin, I saw these and knew that the colour I saw in the palette would be the colour on my eyelid, and I’m not sure I’m ready for fluorescent eyelids. So I didn’t buy it, but now I’m left wondering about it, because whether I like it or not neon is a trend that doesn't seem to be disappearing as quickly as maybe I'd like it to. Maybe I could make neon green work for me somehow. Has/would anyone try this palette? Is this one to be left for the teens, or do I need to be more openminded?!

EDIT: I am currently selling a Sleek Acid and Graphite palette on ebay, they are brand new in box and I'm shipping internationally! Ends 13 December 2009.

Neutral every day makeup with a splash of colour

If you're like me, you enjoy wearing make-up and find yourself coming back to easy neutral colours for every day use. Neutral can become quite boring though, so I will show you how to create a neutral look with a splash of colour. To see the look created live, you can visit the Youtube tutorial.
This is a look that I find myself returning to a lot of the time. It’s very easy to wear and easy to apply as all the colours are from the same palette. The palette I use is Maybelline’s expertwear eye shadow in Enchanted Forest. I bought this in the US but if you’re in the UK, similar colours can be found in one of the Revlon quads (sorry I can't remember the exact name).
The Maybelline quad has great quality eyeshadows, especially for the price. They’re not brilliantly pigmented, but they’re long lasting, and quite shimmery, and because we’re going for a natural look, they’re perfect. You can always layer up the shadow if you wanted a more intense look.
I use this quad because it contains an olive/moss green colour. The trick to wearing colour in a subtle way is to match the colour of your eye and incorporate this colour into your eyeshadow. It doesn’t have to be exact, but if you have blue eyes, look for a suitable blue. If you have brown eyes, maybe look for a coppery brown coloured shadow for the crease, and for grey eyes, a purple grey, for a subtle hint of colour.
I start off with my primer, I use two faced shadow insurance. Then, using the darker beigey gold colour take a brush and sweep it all across the lid. To build the colour up a little bit, it helps to dab the brush in to the colour, then dab it on to the lid. It takes more time but can see the colour more clearly. Next I use another brush to apply the green in to the crease. I use the dark brown on the outer corner, blending it with the green in my crease. I use this colour because I want a colour that is neutral but darker than the crease colour. If you have brown eyes and are using brown on your crease, apply black or a darker brown to your outer corner. Nothing ground breaking, just easy to wear makeup that's subtle, suitable for work/school and a little more interesting than your typical nudes/neutrals.