Maybelline "FIT ME" Range

Hello all, new drugstore makeup review for you today! I was watching telly last night and an advert came on for the new Maybelline Range "FIT Me", a new oil-free range that is meant to take the hassle out of colour matching and provide all the complementary products for your foundation. Today I was in Tesco and the range was on 3 for 2 so I thought I would give it a shot! Here are the three products I chose:

For my three products, I chose the liquid foundation, the pressed powder and the concealer. I was partly intrigued to see how a full 3 part system would work together and also it was a great deal! Of the shades in store, they did not have the very lightest two shades, which I might have originally considered. Thankfully I didn't as the 125 is perfect on my skin once blended in. This shade is the second one in the pink based tones, so probably I would have looked a bit ghost-like with the first one on! What I'm a bit bemused by is that the above three shades are meant to be perfectly matched with each other, but you can clearly see that the foundation is darker than the other two products. Here are the foundation and concealer next to each other on my skin:

foundation on the left, concealer on the right

To tell the truth, once the products are on together you can barely see any difference at all, but it somehow annoys me that "matching" products dont, well, match! Here is the powder:

The packaging for these items is hardly ground breaking but you can see they are trying to look a little more upmarket with the sleek black design. They look nicer than a lot of other affordable products, I was quite impressed with the overall look and feel of them. They're obviously copying Mac and Bobbi Brown a bit but I'm not bothered about that!

As for the performance of the products, the liquid feels light and is easy to manipulate but gives medium to high coverage (great for blemishes but can settle in fine lines a little). It lasts all day and when set with the powder offers a flawless, matte finish. The concealer has a slightly thicker consistency but blends well. It doesn't cling to dry bits and covers my dark circles without irritating my sensitive eyes (WIN).

Overall I am a fan of this system. I can put it on for work and I know I won't be more oily than usual, any blemishes are covered, and it lasts well all day. Re-application of the powder at lunchtime and I'm good to go! For the price these products are very good value, though a word of warning: the powder is quite messy for a pressed powder. The range also offers blushers, so I might check these out in future. Have any of you tried this range? What do you think?

Foundation: 8/10

Concealer 8.5/10

Powder 7/10



What my lips are loving: pearls and pink champagne!

Who can resist pearls and bubbles? If you can, you're a stronger woman than me. With the changing seasons and the winter chill setting in, I've started thinking about looking after my poor lips, which like to get all yucky and dry in winter. In order to keep them soft and pretty, I've been stockpiling goodies! Two of my latest favourites are my new lippie from the MAC cremesheen and pearl collection, and a limited edition Vaseline. Vaseline you say? Yes but not just any Vaseline :)

First up, Shanghai Spice from MAC.

 

I've blown this up so you can see how pretty the sheen is on this. The pearl in the lipstick is very delicate, not as obvious as I would have expected, but feminine and lovely. The shade itself is a delicate rose nude shade, it's a very grown up shade for me! 

This lipstick feels gorgeous on, very classy and Kate Middleton. I'm thinking nude heels and a navy dress (preferably with champers in hand). Talking of champers...

Look at that! Sorry I just had to put it in a glass, for the record I did polish it beforehand but it seems to have my grubby pawprints all over it lol. I saw this in the supermarket the other day and let out a little squeal of delight!

At the end of the day, it's just another Vaseline but it's so much more luxurious to carry about with you than plain old Vaseline. On reading the back, it actually does have alcohol and wine extract in it, and you can smell it in the balm.

The scent is rose based I'd say, but with a tingly sweet scent that definitely smells like champagne, it's lovely and lasts when you have it on. The tin claims that it tints your lips slightly, as you can see above the product is very light in colour, it makes no difference whatsoever lookswise once on. It does however feel lovely, smell delicious and the tin is super girly and decadent. On an aside, this looks great over Benefit's Cha Cha tint on your lips!

Well there you go, lovelies. Pearls and champagne for the weekend. It's Friday so pouts at the ready, if you want to give your lips a VIP upgrade, I'd recommend these products.

8/10 for the MAC as it could be more pigmented and 10/10 for the Vaseline as a favourite staple

Illamasqua Lipsticks- let's get bold

Hey guys, I've been horribly busy at uni, fourth year now so lots on my plate! But I'm back with some more lovely product reviews for you. What better to start off with than lipstick, everyone loves a good lippie!

I had wanted an Illamasqua lipstick for ages, I'm still in love with their packaging and entire ethos, and their bold colours really appeal to me. So I went for two of their brightest colours, Fetish and Encounter.

 Encounter (R) and Fetish (L)

I'll firstly start with Fetish as I was a little disappointed with the colour payoff with this shade as it's so bright in the bullet.

It's a gorgeous grape shade, vampy and dark, I had no idea where I would actually wear this but just wanted it regardless.

As you can see from the swatched, the colour comes off a little cooler on the skin, there is a warmth to the purple in the bullet, almost a magenta tone which is totally lost on the skin, it falls a little flat and one-dimensional, which is really gutting. It looks a little Morticia Addams to me sadly.

 I am particularly pale, but even so I cannot see this shade being particularly flattering on many skin tones. I'll play about with is and different looks so we'll see, but I'm skeptical!

On the other hand, Encounter is the most amazing 50's red. It's sexy, luscious and my new favourite red lipstick.

I am besotted with this shade, it makes me feel like a film star! The purple shade just shows every line on your lips and doesn't give the colour you want, but this one plumps and fills out your lips. My favourite thing about this is a lot of red lipsticks fade badly or stain your lips, but this one doesn't. It wears evenly and doesn't budge.

If you're looking for a new red lipstick for winter, I urge you to give Illamasqua a try, their website is here, check it out! If you have any questions about their products just let me know :)

MWAH!