Sigma and Illamasqua Shipping Offers

Just a quick note...

Illamasqua is offering free shipping til midnight on Friday. The code for the UK is 'FREEUK11'. There is also free international shipping (only over £50 though) which is 'INTERNATIONAL50'.

Also, and possibly more exciting for non Americans, Sigma also have free international shipping tomorrow! Sigma make amazing brushes (I'm a huge fan of their F80 kabuki brush, which is like the elf Powder Brush but a million times better. It has literally made foundations amazing just using this brush!). With free shipping and the difference in currency conversion, it makes them very well priced. I have the F80 and F82 and they are both really good quality, no dye running or shedding. If you've been eyeing them or any others up it's definitely worth taking a look! This offers run from 9am to 5pm US Central Standard Time- as far as I know for UK readers that means around mid afternoon onwards tomorrow, you'll be able to see whether it's started from your shopping cart I imagine.

Will you be taking advantage?

http://www.sigmabeauty.com/default.asp
http://www.illamasqua.com/

Love B xxx

Beauty LAT: Big Haul, Part 1

Have I got a haul post and a half for you!

Firstly, this wasn't all bought in one go (it really wasn't. Promise.) I had a fair few things ordered from Asia and America, so they took ages to turn up! This post focuses on those things, part 2 is on a few goodies I bought when I was away on work experience. So here we go....

Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream, in shade 13, the palest one.

From Sigma 2 brushes, the 1st is the F82, a round top kabuki brush, and the 2nd is the F50, a duo fibre. I also got a mini eyeshadow blending brush free!

From Cherry Culture (there was a lovely big sale on, as there is now!)

 

Nyx Matte Lipcreams in Antwerp and Monte Carlo

 Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk

Nyx HD Studio Primer in 01

I also got 3 nail polishes from L.A. Girl, but will feature them in a few days as I've been wearing one of them this week!

Some cheap nail art wheels I got off ebay.

So that's part 1! Let me know if there are any particular products you are keen for reviews on :)

Love B xxx

Beauty LAT 104: Gosh X-Ceptional Wear Foundation says 'Stop Ignoring Me!'

GOSH X-Ceptional Wear foundation is something else I came across in my ‘must get pale foundation’ spree, and I’ve kind of ignored it for a while. See… I’m a bit scared of it. It’s one of those foundations where, if you get it right, it looks SO good. As in airbrushed perfection. But it’s quite easy to get wrong, and so out of about the first 5 times I tried it, I loved it once, which makes it difficult to choose as a good everyday foundation.

The issues I had were these: this is a very high coverage foundation. Which I like actually (I’m going somewhere with this I promise). But if you put too much on you will look like you are wearing make-up (although that can work in a vintage 40s pin-up way). The other big issue is that it clings to dry patches pretty badly and cakes on them. When I first got this I didn’t have a primer to smooth those bits over, so that issue pretty much killed this foundation at first.

But then I got a primer. And I gave this foundation a proper test. I wore with it, with a primer on my dry patches, on a tough day. It was hot, I went on a long walk uphill with my dog, I took the train from home to uni home (a 4-5 hour trip) carrying heavy suitcases and with a train change in London and in Kent to deal with. Long hot day, lots of exertion, about 12 hours worth of time to last me. So let’s face it, a day that would kill most foundations stone dead. This one… lasted. And lasted well. My major check-up was in London at 10pm, so about 10 hours after application. Admittedly my nose coverage (the oiliest part of my face) had mostly gone, but I expected that, and a quick powder sorted it out. My cheeks and chin and forehead coverage were flawless, and I was so pleased! By 1am when I got home it was suffering more, but after 12-13 hours that’s pretty good going.

So really this ought to be my perfect foundation. My shade Porcelain, no.11, is super pale, it’s high coverage, lasts really well and it’s reasonably priced and accessible (I believe most Superdrug stores carry the line, their website says £7.99 although I’m sure I remember it being more than that, but hey it’s even cheaper now anyway!). And yet… I almost never pick it up to wear it. Recently I was reminded of how stupid this was. I did a mini makeover trying products the other day and used the GOSH with my Sigma Flat Top Kabuki Brush. This is the photo on my Twitter from that mini experiment:

And another:

Look how perfect my cheeks look! No cakiness even with no primer (better brush, more moisturiser). I’m not trying to show off, just trying to point out how stupid I am to not use it if it works. Anyway, I’d forgotten about these photos, and then yesterday looked at my Twitter photo and went ‘I look really good in that. The colour and the coverage is really good!’. I then had a brain fail. I couldn’t remember what base I was wearing! Anyway 10 minutes later I pulled my rubbish brain together and scolded myself. Ok this isn’t the easiest base. But it looks so good when done right, and for that I can make the effort more often. So I’m going to make an effort to not forget this and actually use it.

Honestly though, if you want all the things I mentioned for a base and you don’t want to spend a lot, give this a go. Be careful with dry patches but I think it’s worth trying.

Rating: 8.5/10

Beauty LAT 102: Nars Sheer Glow and my broken heart

NARS Sheer Glow… has broken my heart. I’ve never had such a painful affair with a foundation in my life. I will elaborate.

Over the holidays I decided I wanted to try a high end foundation (something in the £30 area). Mainly I wanted to do this because I was fed-up of drugstore foundations being the wrong colour. I’m pale and I’m neutral with slightly pink tones and it was just irritating how all my foundations were terrible on me. Now to my credit, I researched the heck out of what choices were available. I’m fairly sure I read the whole internet. I looked at swatches, I read reviews, I did everything.

NARS Sheer Glow caught my attention because of the sheer number of reviews (geddit?) that were around and how glowing they were (really I’ll stop it now). I can’t count the number of people raving about how this was their Holy Grail (i.e. perfect) foundation, and I was pretty convinced it would be mine too. In fact, I bought thinking that it would be, and was imagining our beautiful future together… until it arrived.

I can’t get it to work on me. The first time I used it? It looked cakey, and after about an hour was blotchy and horrifically bad. I was unbelievably upset. One, I thought I’d made a very expensive mistake, but two, and even worse… it’s the perfect colour on me. I have Siberia, the lightest shade, and it’s beautiful. It matches my neck perfectly and I’m not constantly thinking ‘it’s just not quite right’. So my perfect shade and yet everyone else’s HG foundation didn’t work on me. 

I went a bit crazy with my obsession over it. I was determined I could make it work, that I must be doing something wrong. I made excuses for it. Now yes I was having the worst skin week ever when I first got it. Yes I’m not the most accomplished applicator of foundation (I couldn’t think of a better word). But that said… I shouldn’t have to make these excuses. One of the best things I read recently was Lipglossiping’s thoughts on foundation (read here http://tinyurl.com/3j6hv37), and she is absolutely right. It should work whatever I do, on bad days as well as good. Even knowing this, I went on a mini trial, even trying it at 3am some nights to see whether I could make it work. The results?...

Application with fingers: This is how the NARS leaflet in the box tells you to do it. I don’t like it. I’m honestly rubbish at applying bases with my fingers, because it just looks unblended. And trying the NARS like this proved my suspicions correct. The only way I’m getting it on is with a brush.

Application with GOSH foundation brush: I love this brush, but no. Cakey, not blended properly, tendency to apply too much I felt? Again a no.

Application with Sigma Flat Top Kabuki: I ended up at this out of desperation, because I so wanted it to work. I got the brush a week ago (it had to be ordered from America, and so was a last ditch attempt) and the results from 2 applications?... It looks better. Not quite perfect, but much much better. I’m pleased.

So the positives from this experiment/car crash… the colour is fantastic and I think the range is fairly good from what I can see. I’d actually say the coverage is more like medium to high, it’s not really sheer. It is beautiful at evening out and covering up blotchy, blemished skin even without concealer on. It’s beautifully presented, and I’m not actually bothered by the lack of a pump

The negatives… the price. It’s a lot for the same amount of product as a standard drugstore brand. Lasting power (on me at least) is rubbish. I wasn’t expecting anything miraculously long, but even with a lot of powder and a primer this isn’t going to be my choice for a long busy day. The high coverage also means when it fades off you are going to notice it.

I don’t quite know how to feel about this product. On the one hand logically I ought to have returned or sold it ages ago, because it’s been more trouble than it’s worth, especially as I ended up having to buy an expensive brush to make it go on half decently. But I can’t let it go. I just can’t. I can’t get it out of my head that now the application is better, I can make it work for something, although I can’t really think of any situation it’s going to work that well for. My final thoughts are these: by all means read reviews. If a product does well for a lot of people, that means it generally is good. But don’t assume it’ll be a HG product for you just because it is for everyone else. Really try for a sample or at least a swatch before you buy. Don’t fall in love before you’ve tried it properly. It’ll only end in tears.

Anyone have any hints for me where I’m going wrong?

UPDATE: Yes sorry I know this is the longest review ever! I’m thinking I might sell this. It just isn’t useful enough for me, and if I can’t wear a foundation out of the house because I’m terrified of it melting, then frankly, why bother owning it? I’m considering going off to the Estee Lauder to get the Double Wear (which they also do in very pale shades), buying that, and selling the NARS and another foundation to cover it if I like it. Sorry NARS, I’m feeling brutal.

Rating for colour: 10/10

Rating for formulation/heartache: 3.5/10