Night Time Skin Care Routine

Hello again beautiful readers, I have been asked to do my night time skin care regime and thought that I would get it out of the way before I move back to university...before the hectic lifestyle of being a full time student takes over.

Anyway there are generally 4 steps to my routine which are the same every night, and have been for about 2/3 months.

I never used to care about my skin at the end of the day, sometimes I would sleep in my make-up (naughty I know that now) and other times I would simply remove it with a make-up wipe and that was that... nothing else just sleep.

Now to say that I did this up until 3 months ago, I don't have bad skin. In fact my skin is rather good to me, the only thing that fails me is when I get that one spot every time of the month.. so annoying hormones!
Anyway I am seriously rambling but here are my steps of my regime...

Step 1 - Remove any of my eye makeup with my Garnier Simply Essentials Cleansing Lotion on a cotton pad. This product is designed for tough mascara, and is so light on my eyes, I have no need to rub hard just simply swipe over my eyes and hey presto the pads no longer white but black! I then apply this to another cotton pad and start wiping away at my face makeup such as my foundation and my eyebrows.

Step 2 - I remove any remaining make-up from my face (not my eyes) with the Simple Revitalising Wipes which are designed to improve the condition of your skin with added vitamins. I like these wipes because they are 100% oil and alcohol free, which means that on my skin they don't leave a lingering dewy residue... something I despise of after taking away all of my makeup.

Step 3 - I then move on to use my cleanser, which at the moment is the Lush 9 to 5 cleanser, I previously did a post on this which is available here. I apply this cleanser with my fingers all over my face, massage it into my skin and then remove away any excess with another cotton pad. After the cleanser I use my toner, which as mentioned in the Lush Skin Post is the Breath of Fresh Air Toner Water. I spritz this onto a cotton pad and brush over my face just to make sure all of the cleanser has been removed out of my pours.

Step 4 - Leaving my skin for about 10-15 minutes for the natural oils to sink back into my skin, I then apply a night time moisturiser at the moment I have been using the L'Oreal Dermo Experitse Youth Code Night Cream. I tend to switch my night creams up throughout the year depending on the season and how dry my skin tends to be. But this is usually the final step in my night time regime

Illamasqua and Mac

Hey guys, I know your probably thinking I don't need anymore makeup after reading a few of the posts lately but no girl can ever have too much makeup especially whilst im blogging to you guys.

So I was in selfridges the other day and was lurking over at the Illamasqua counter, just admiring the products whilst my mum picked up some stuff from another stall, when an assistant asked me if I would like to try the Skin Base foundation and that she would be able to colour match me. I thought why not, just to see what it feels like as I love the Illamasqua Hydra Veil, to my delight the colour was perfect for my a perfect match for my skin (shade 4.5 if your wondering) and I loved the feel of it. I thought I would walk around for a little bit and see how the foundation reacted to my skin, after half an hour the foundation looked just as flawless as when she applied it, and I bit the bullet and purchased my first Illamasqua foundation. Very proud day for me, but not a good day for my bank balance as this little beauty is around the £27 mark. Quite expensive for the little tube of product I received however small the tube looks it is actually 30ml which is the standard size for most foundations, not too bad looking at it that way.

Shade 4.5 RRP£27

I've only tried it a couple of times since I bought it but the coverage is fantastic, really build-able to create a high coverage foundation, something which I really like. Another thing which might seem strange is the fact that I love the smell of the foundation, not just this one but any high end foundation such as Mac or YSL has a certain high end smell something which I love! Weird!!!! I know I am.

Anyway, after the pondering session at Illamasqua, I couldn't help but visit the old faithful Mac. I have been wearing one of their eye shadows every day for the past year and recently ran out. Because silly old me had depotted the shade and not wrote down what name it was I was struggling for ages to find the right one, until one of the assistants came over took a look at the little scrapping of eye shadow left in the pan and told me exactly which one it was thank the lord!! It was Sweet Lust, a light pink champagney sparkle shade. So ofcourse I had to repurchase it, This time in its own pot so I wouldn't loose it and forget which shade it was.

Sweet Lust (Lustre Finish) RRP £12.50

FAKE MAKEUP! DANGERS!! MAC

Hey lovelies, Today im going to be talking about......

So my younger sister started getting into makeup a couple of months ago and came acorss a website were she bought some 'genuine mac makeup products'. Now me being into makeup I quickly became a bit reluctant and told her that they were probably counterfeit products.

Like most young teenagers, her and her friends didn't seem to mind as they thought they were getting high end products at low end prices, so she went ahead and placed an order.

Now, some people don't realise how dangerous counterfeit makeup can be. They contain different chemicals and toxins which can be dangerous to the skin, Like my sister, some people also don't know how to spot counterfeit makeup products so I thought I would do a post on some brands which are circling the internet at the moment.

Mac is one of the main counterfeit makeup products out there, people that use and buy from mac counters will be aware of what their products look like, along with the packaging and the naming of the cosmetics. However, new make up beginners may not be so aware and would more than likely snap up what they believe to be 'bargain makeup'.

One of the main things I would recommend you do is make yourself familiar with the brands collections, especially Mac.

Mac will never produce and eye shadow palette unless it is a part of a collection for example the holiday collection, wonder woman, hello kitty and so on... A more recent one being the Archies Girls collection.

This will help when looking at palette eyeshadows, Anything that looks like this;

FAKE

or this

Palette containing more than 4 eyeshadows and not in a round shape as well as an applicator is a fake product! All Mac shadows are round like the Veronica Palette below taken from the Archies Girls collection:

REAL

Although the fake shadows may be well pigmented and the colour pay off similar to that of a genuine mac shadow, because they are counterfeit we are unable to tell what chemicals and substances they are made up of, and may be harmful to your skin.

Sticking with the eyeshadow theme, a Single Mac authentic eyeshadow will look like this:

Notice how there is nothing else underneath where the lid lifts up, However, on most counterfeit mac eyeshadows there are a second compartment underneath were by an applicator is stored. This is another sign on how to pick up whether it is genuine or not, as by now you should know all Mac products do not come with an applicator unless they are apart of the holiday collection, and in this case will not look like this;

Left - Real, Right - FAKE!!

Eyeshadows covered, another large counterfeit Mac product is blusher.

Now all mac products come with names such as 'Desert Rose' or 'Peaches' were as counterfeit blushes tend to have numbers or codes. This is one way of knowing whether your blush is real or fake.
Here are some pictures of a fake Mac Blush my sister bought, without being introduced to the world of makeup.

Notice how there is chalk around the black casing of the blush, when it hasn't been used, the texture and feel of the blusher is noticeably different from that of a real mac blusher. As mentioned earlier fake blushers tend to have numbers instead of names, notice the bottom sticker 'M08'.

Another common counterfeit product is lipstick. Mac have hundreds of lipsticks, some are discontinued and are available on line and some are purely limited edition. However some lipsticks you can buy online such as 'limited edition' may be real but others may be fake. Now the packaging tends to be very good on fake lipsticks, but the labelling of the lipstick again is where they slip up. Ok so the lipstick might have the name of the finish such as lustre of frost, but will tend to have the number such as 'A038' wrote above the finish instead of printed under like a real lipstick would.

Here are some photos of 'mac lipsticks', one is a real mac lipstick and one is a fake.

The one on the left is fake and the one on the right is real.

The real visible difference between these two is the product name, the one on the left doesn't seem to have 'Mac' written on the lid, something which all Mac lipsticks do have. The bottom bullet (that holds the lipstick) is also a little fatter than the one on the right.

This photo shows the sticker on the bottom of the lipstick, the place were Mac names and labels the finish of the lipstick. The lipstick on the left the fake one is quite convincing as it is a 'viva glam' the brand from nicki and lady gaga, it also has the finish 'Lustre' and the so called name 'Cyndi' however it is in the wrong order. On a real lipstick such as the one on the right the finish is at the top in this case 'Satin' and the name is second 'Rebel'. Another thing wrong with the Mac lipstick on the left is the code at the bottom 'AA12' Mac lipsticks only have one letter before the number, as demonstrated by the lipstick on the right 'B62'.

Telling the difference between real and fake can sometimes be quite tricky, so my advice to anybody thinking of buying branded make-up online from places such as Ebay and amazon would be don't. You may be handing your money over for fake products, some which can be dangerous to your skin.

Wishlist #6

Michael Korrs Saffiano Leather Tote | Fisherman Beanie | Pineapple Cushion |

Soleil Tan De Chanel | Initial Chevron Iphone 5 Case 

OOTD: Vintage Flowers & Biker Jacket

Hi guys, I've never done one of these posts before but seen as though my style and fashion keeps evolving I thought It would be nice to keep track of what I've wore and things just to see how drastic it changes. Let me know if you like these posts or any opinions would be great.

Jacket: Dorothy Perkins, Dress: Dorothy Perkins
Tights: Primark 60 Denier, Belt: Primark
Boots: Marks and Spencer

Close up of the boots:

Marks and Spencer RRP £35

Sorry for the awkward posing and not so great camera just starting to get use to this, if you have any questions then leave them below.

Thanks

Rimmel Stay Matte Foundation

Hey guys, so your probably thinking why has she bought yet again another foundation, well the truth is I really enjoy testing out foundations and my skin has changed a lot over the past couple of months from oily to dry to normal so im trying to find a foundation that suits all of the above.

I saw an advert on the TV last night from Rimmel with the amazing Georgia Jagger promising that the new stay matte foundation does exactly that and stays matte maintaining shine control. I thought the advert was brilliant constantly repeating no more cake, referring to the cakeiness of normal foundation. Something that every girl despises so I thought why not give it a shot and see what its like.

I managed to pick up one of the lighter shades which is 100 Ivory, second from lightest. I tested this on my skin and found that this was probably the best match I would find as the Porcelain was too light and the True Ivory was a tad dark. I picked mine up from boots, which they also have online here. The foundation retails for £5.99 at the moment which I think is a complete bargain compared to some of my other Rimmel favourites such as the Wake Me Up.

I have tried this foundation a couple of times now and find that the texture (which is a liquid mousse) is a really easy to apply with either my fingers or my trustee real techniques buffing brush. I find that because my skin is quite dry at the moment it is best to apply a primer and a moisturizer before applying this foundation.

The only thing that disappoints me, just like with every rimmel foundation there shades are limited I mean when are the drugstore brands going to open their eyes are realise there are people that are darker than 'Natural Beige' which in this case is the darkest colour this foundation is available in, so sorry to all you darker skinned people Rimmel need a good telling off.

Seventeen Phwoarr Paint Concealer

Hey guys heres me again rambling about new products, who would of thought it?

Anyway, I saw Gemma from Gemsmaquillage talking about this new Seventeen heavy duty under eye concealer a couple of weeks ago. I read her review and a few others and thought that I would give it a shot, I am loyal to my Benefit boi-ing industrial strength concealer, but noticed that the formulas and the colour (fair) where quite similar so I thought I would try it out and see what I thought about it. As this one is just a third of the price as the Benefit one.

I picked my shade up In fair as the medium (the only other shade they do) was too dark for my skin tone. Sadly if your any darker than a medium you won't be wearing this concealer, something that I have mentioned before about drugstore brands is that their shades don't seem to cover the lighter scale of people and the darker scale, just the in-betweeners. Im lucky that because of my foundation I can buff this concealer in to make sure that its not too dark.

Phwoarr Paint Fair & Medium £5.49

A really handy thing about this concealer is the mirror, You can take it in your handbag and do touch ups throughout the day if need be, and use the already available mirror.

I have used this concealer a couple of times now on a day to day basis and find that throughout the day I don't really need to powder over the top of the concealer i just simply apply it with my fingers, smooth it in and then buff out with the real techniques contour brush if there are any harsh lines.

I did however, use this concealer to take my makeup look from day to night and found that powdering the concealer with my Rimmel Stay Matte powder made sure that this concealer lasted all throughout the night.

This concealer claims to get rid of, well hide and cover up under eye circles and I can agree with Seventeen on this statement. Their target audience are young teenagers to young adults, people like me, who don't seem to have many wrinkles or sever under eye circles and therefore works well. I let my mum test this product (she's in her 40's) and it worked well on her apart from dragging and clinging (leaving lines) in a few of her wrinkles underneath her eyes, although It did cover up any dark circles she had.

All in all i think this is on the same level with my boi-ing concealer and I really think it is worth the money, it does what it says and if i run out soon then i will be repurchasing. Thanks Seventeen!!!