Nails of The Week

I haven't done a nails of the week post in a while so I thought it was about time to get one up! This week I wore this gorgeous blue colour by Cora called Cancun. I'd say the colour is a bit more 'electric' than it appears in the photos. I love blue colours so this nail varnish caught my eye as soon as I noticed it while I was browsing nail polish in my local beauty supply shop. Cora is one of the cheap drugstore nail polish brands here in Brazil, a dupe I found for this colour is Barry M's Cyan Blue.

 

I started to wear glittery metallic shades on my ring finger whenever I chose a creamy shade for the rest of my nails but I thought this time I'd leave that detail out. This may be my favourite blue of the moment! Do you have a favourite blue nail polish?

Review | e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow Primer

 

 

This is the first eyeshadow primer I've ever bought and may just be the last just because it is AWESOME. I had heard good things about this primer before I purchased it so I bought it with no second thoughts. I had it in my stash for some time before I actually used it as I wasn't used to using eyeshadow primer before I started to experiment more with make-up and just kept forgetting to use it. The first time I used it was on New Year's, which was the perfect test as my dramatic eye make-up would have to last for hours.

e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow Primer has a light, creamy texture and blends nicely onto the skin. The finish is completely sheer. There is no gloopy or sticky feel on application, it feels quite soft and silky in fact. When I used this on New Year's I applied my makeup at around 9pm and got home at around 5am and my eyes looked exactly like they did when I had first applied my makeup! I have oily skin and my eyelids are no exception to that, my eyeshadow creases and gets shiny after some time and the e.l.f. Mineral Eyeshadow Primer even managed to keep that under control! Furthermore, you only need a tiny bit of product and you are good to go! One of my best budged buys, highly recommended! Have you tried e.l.f.'s Mineral Eyeshadow Primer? What's your favourite eyeshadow primer?

Review | Clarins Super Restorative Foundation -Teint Lift Eclat Spf 15

Don't you just hate it when you buy a product without realizing what it actually is? Well I do and that's what happened when I bought this foundation. I didn't realise it was and anti-aging foundation (despite the words 'True Lift' in the name, duuuh!), I wouldn't have purchased it if I had realized. However it was on sale for more than half off so I didn't really give that much attention to details as I wanted to take advantage of the mega bargain! This foundation retails at  £35 at Boots so it's quite pricey without that nice discount! I've never been interested in anti-aging foundations as due to my oily skin I've always found them to be best suited to dry skin types. Having said that, my error was a blessing in disguise as I looove this foundation. It is amazing, it gives a beautifully fresh and natural finish to the skin without being too dewy (no shimmer by the way). It has great medium to high coverage so you can apply just a little bit on those days you're feeling good about your skin but still want a 'lift'. Despite the great coverage this foundation is not heavy or cakey, it is wonderfully light! It gives the skin a supple, hydrated and healthy looking finish.

The packaging is great as it's a pump bottle, so fuss free. Even better is that it's the type of pump that pushes the product up as it gets used like the Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation bottle. Only thing is that you can't see how much product is left as the bottle is white but that doesn't really bother me too much.

This foundation has a nice light creamy consistency and it blends nicely.

I noticed as I was testing out the shades that the odd numbered shades were warmer / neutral toned and the even numbered shades were cooler toned. I ended up choosing shade 9 Café Glacé / Capuccino as it was the darkest available where I bought the foundation, I would have preferred a slightly darker shade though. I'm a MAC NC44, I think I would say that shade 9 would be comparable to NC42. I would prefer for the shade to be a bit yellower, but that is my personal preference. The only foundation I've so far tried to date that I've found to be yellow enough for me is MAC's Studio Fix, but it made my skin bumpy so can't use it =(.

This foundation instructs you to apply it with your fingers which I believe is the best way as I've tried using brushes and they don't give the same natural finish as when applying with my fingers. A little goes a long way!This foundation lasts well and doesn't make my skin that much more oily than when I don't use it. I do have to blot at some point but that's just the way with oily skin! I would not recommend it to people with oily skin that prefer foundations that help with oil control as this is definitely a dewy foundation. It has SPF so that's a plus for those who like foundations with SPF.

Conclusion? One of the best 'mistake' purchases I've ever made! I love looove this foundation, it's pretty expensive but I like it so much I might be tempted to splash out when my bottle finishes! My experience with this has got me interested in trying out other Clarins products. I know how popular the Beauty Flash Balm is so I'm thinking of giving that a go too. What is/are your favourite Clarins product/s?

Bikini Body Time!

So it's about that time of the year again, when we want to look that extra special for summer body exposure! Hehe, so I decided to start a summer body series on my YouTube channel giving tips on getting ready for summer. I've so far uploaded two videos on how to get rid of cellulite and tips for sticking to your diet. I believe that you can't go wrong with a continual healthy lifestyle as not only will you always be feeling your best every summer or any time you'll be exposing a bit more skin, but your mind, body and soul will thank you in the long run! But to start the topic off on my channel I decided to do these videos especially for anyone who is wanting to start a healthier lifestyle.

How to get rid of cellulite!

There is no way of literally banishing cellulite unfortunately, we can reduce its appearance. If you follow some of these tips (even better, all!) you will definitely see a great improvement! 

Tips for sticking to a diet

Dieting is hard, even harder if you think of it has that! 'Arghh I'm on a DIET, can't eat this or that...' It's harder if you make it some sort of self punishment / torture. This is why I enjoy living a healthy lifestyle (more or less healthy! hehe) rather than always being on a 'diet' or dieting for certain occasions. I do not consider the way I eat as following a 'diet'. Anyway, before I start rambling, as I said these initial videos are to help anyone who's looking for tips and advice in beginning something that could possibly progress to a healthier way of living.

I hope you enjoy the videos and find them useful!

Review | Me Me Me Eye Inspire Catwalk Quad Collection

I'm a sucker for gorgeous metallic, vibrant eyeshadow, so when I cam across these quads while browsing the Me Me Me Cosmetics website I had to have them! Just look at those intense colours! I love these quads but I initially was really put off when I first tried one of them, so much so I hadn't tried the rest until quite recently. The first time I was going to use any of the quads I opted for Fire Eyes, I was in a rush and was going to quickly update my day make-up to a more dramatic night look. I grabbed my brush and went to pick up some colour and to my annoyance absolutely nothing transferred on to the brush! So I tried using my finger and I only got some colour pay off using quite a bit of pressure. I was so put off I didn't even try the other quads. I googled for reviews but didn't find that much at the time. I found one review that complained about the same thing and another saying really good things, so I thought maybe I got some dud quads so I left them aside for some time. Anyway, one night when I was doing a green smokey eye  I decided to give the quads another go since I hadn't really tried all of them out, this time the colour transferred properly to the brush and gave me the results I had expected before! Highly pigmented metallic gorgeousness. 

These quads aren't cheap (each one costs £6.50) so it's pretty bad that the Fire Eyes quad had extremely bad colour pay off, and since I had seen that bad review talking about the same problem I suspect that it isn't rare someone gets a dud quad (or more than one.) However, when the eyeshadows work as they should they are absolutely gorgeous.

There is a possibility that Me Me Me became aware of this problem and addressed it as when I bought the quads they were called Eye Inspire Baked Eyeshadow where as now they are called Inspire Catwalk Quad Collection. Have you tried these quads? What are your favourite intense metallic eyeshadows?