Month: February 2016

REVIEW: Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Gel foundation 30ml, £10.99

Standard

Image result for bourjois healthy mix serum

We found this foundation when we trialled Chantecaille’s Future Skin gel foundation, but the price made us want to cry. We started looking for other oil-free gel formulas and the one that everyone was raving about was Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum. It’s almost a dupe for the Future Skin.

It was hard to work out which shade we were as there were never the right testers in store, but we’re glad we persisted. This has become our drugstore foundation of choice. It basically does everything you’d want a foundation to do – provides good medium coverage that lasts well. It didn’t produce a ‘luminous’ or ‘dewy’ finish and can’t say we noticed the ‘anti-fatigue’ claims but it did look natural and didn’t separate or go patchy as foundations often can with combination skin.

Best of all, whilst it’s not weightless (but it is fairly lightweight), it feels pretty good and lasts relatively well even in the T-Zone on combination skin (would need a touch up during a full day). Best of all, Bourjois cater relatively well for yellow-toned shades.

This went straight in as our Holy Grail drugstore foundation.

PROS: Inexpensive, breathable, lightweight, well suited to combination skin

CONS: No added radiance

4.5 out of 5

REVIEW: Collection Fast Stroke Eye Liner (black) 3.8g, £2.99

Standard

Image result for collection fast stroke eyeliner

We like the control of a pen, dislike the faff of gel liners with separate brushes. Our favourite liquid liners are definitely the dip style felt tip liquid liners. You get great control with these.

This Collection product was at a pretty good price but was very average. It stung our eyelids a little for the first couple of weeks, but the main issue was that the colour was not really as dense as we would usually like.

Not terrible/average in all. Our favourite so far is Rimmel Exaggerate (or the Clio Kill Black Eyeliner Pen, not available in the UK) which gives a really opaque line.

PROS: A good-quality tip for producing nice shapes/lines, relatively cheap

CONS: Colour bit watery

2 out of 5

REVIEW: Laura Mercier Primer 50ml, £29

Standard

Image result for laura mercier primer

Basically the best primer we have yet tried!

It’s weightless, transparent, you can’t feel it on your skin and it helps your makeup perform better and ‘stick’ to your skin. Because it’s weightless, we particularly recommend this for combination skin as it doesn’t aggravate it or ‘sit’ on the skin like some primers can.

It doesn’t have any pore filling or blurring properties, it just helps your makeup last longer. Combine it with fixing spray and your makeup’s not going anywhere!

It’s our HG primer but because of the price, we keep this one for more special occasions or when we need our makeup to last particularly long.

Remember though, that for a primer to work well, your skincare regime needs to already be sorted.

PROS: Does everything a primer should and does it well

CONS: Pricey, but a little goes a long way

5 out of 5

REVIEW: NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow 4g, £25

Standard

Image result for nars kalahari duo

This is just one of those products that we didn’t realise we needed until we tried it!

The shades are hard working, flattering and versatile – a pearly mid heather and a buttery, metallic mauve. The shades work really well on oriental skin for a made-up but natural appearance, that also works up really well with a black or grey for a super stylish smokey-eye

 

Highly-pigmented, these wear well especially when applied wet and basically do everthing you would want an eyeshadow to do.  This has become our go-to eyeshadow in combination with a matte black.

It has gone straight into our hall of fame.

PROS: Looks super stylish, wears well

CONS: A little pricey, packaging picks up finger prints and marks really easily.

4.5 out of 5

Image result for nars kalahari duo