Perfect Nude Lip for Women of Colour

I have been trying to perfect this look for ages and I think I'm finally happy with it.  I never thought that I'd wear a nude lip to work as I feel that it tends to wash a face out if you haven't balanced it with a statement/dark eye.

I personally think that getting a nude lip for those of us with darker skins is one of the biggest makeup problems we have, alongside finding a decent concealer which doesn't cost the earth.  You want a nice nude lip, not one that looks like you've smeared someone's concealer all over your lips.

As my lips are not uniform in colour and are already quite pigmented, getting a natural (as possible) nude lip is made that little bit more difficult.

A long time ago now, I took the advice of this WOC beauty oracle and she told me that she had recently bought a lipstick which worked as a perfect nude.

I rushed to ebay and bought it.

It has been documented here before and I have used it for a few desi functions when the eye makeup has been heavy.

I have always wondered how people figured out which coloured lipglosses worked over certain lipsticks.  I came across this totally by accident.  I wanted to make my lips glossier but had no clear gloss and grabbed the lightest coloured gloss I could see.  I have never really layered coloured lipgloss over a lipstick before but I am so glad I decided to mix these two as I now have the perfect glossy nude lip.  The colours are strong enough to not vanish the second I put them on my lips.

I've got hand swatches and lip swatches so you can see the colours as they are and how they transform over to my lips.

The top left hand photograph of my lips is how it looks in reality, the rest are just there to show you how it looks when layered. 

Do you think this works as a nude? If you have any tips and tricks re. getting a good nude lip, leave a comment!

Pore form!

I know, I know..what a pore joke.

*ahem*

I'm forever banging on about pores. Pores in the morning, pores in the evening, pores all over the damn shop.

Why are some products called pore perfectors and others called pore minimisers? I know you can't get rid of pores full stop so shouldn't they all be called pore minimisers? If pores were perfect, they wouldn't be there!

I bought a pore minimiser the other week..got home and realised I also had a pore reducing serum that I'd never used so I decided to put them both to the test.

I should point out that one is marketed as a pore minimser and one is a marketed as a pore minimising serum.  I'm not too sure what the difference is there but the instructions on both aren't identical.

The first is this baby, L'oreal Derma Genesis Pore Minimising Serum:

I'm not too sure where this came from..I assume either Boots or Superdrug.  Going by the hazy nature of its acquisition, I'm not sure of the price.

This is marketed as a serum and the instructions state that you should put it all over your face but not near your eyes.

I take issue with that, for the following reasons:

It says smooth all over your face but not the eye area..I count the eye area as stopping where the eye socket bone is.  So I didn't put any there but instead whacked it over the rest of my face.  It stung me so bad I had to remove both it and my moisturiser.

So now I have pores which are being minimised and pores which are being left out..not the results I really wanted.

Anyway, once you've had a bit of trial and error with it, how does it hold up?  Hmm..I like it BUT I have to be careful when applying it due to the sting factor.  It does minimise your pores and it keeps your skin nice and non greasy looking throughout the day.  I put a fair bit on my nose and it didn't dry it out at all.

It does have problems.  It smells pretty potent.  Not a nasty smell, just an in your face smell.  It smells like Comfort washing liquid.  The pump which dispenses the serum always has that one bit of cream on it which was left from last time and has since hardened.  The annoying thing is that it lives inside the pump so you can't expel it all at once.  You don't need to use much to get decent coverage of your face so in that respect, it's pretty good.

Another "negative" thing..I always thought that pore minimisers did just that..minimised your pores on application.  I couldn't see any immediate minimisation..

The second is this, Almay Pore Minimizer.

This directs you to just smooth it over wherever you have prominent pores so I put it on my forehead, my nose and the sides of my nose.

It did dry my nose out a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiny bit so I had to add some extra moisturiser.  The L'oreal one didn't do this.  However, for the sake of science, I applied this all over my face too (including the scene of Sting-gate) and it did sting me.  HOWEVER, atleast this one tells you where you should put it.

Another massive plus point, I COULD SEE MINIMISATION OF PORES! The area surely looked a lot smoother than it did (immediately) after I applied the L'oreal serum.

Which do I like better?
For foolproof application: The Almay one.
For not giving you a sliiiiiiiiiiiiightly dry nose: The L'oreal one.
Price wise: The Almay one was £1 from the Pound Shop, I think the L'oreal one is about a tenner?
For best all over results: The Almay one.

By the way, when I was Googling a face photo, Google Images suggested this which freaked the hell out of me.

You can buy it as a piece of art for your house but looking at the link online scared me enough, I can't think of anyone who wouldn't be a bit spooked seeing that staring back at you in the middle of the night.

Anyone had any success stories with pore perfectors/minimisers/serums? Let me know because I'm still on the lookout.

The Swatch Files: L'oreal Color Minerals Eyeshadow Shade 3 Desert Shimmer

This is one of my daily shadows, the packaging is a bit fiddly but ho hum.

The Swatch Files: L'oreal Glam Bronze Bronzer and Blusher for Brunettes

I love the fact that L'oreal have made a range of products which have shades depending on your hair colour because I think that usually ties in with the colour of your skin..

Anyway, now that it's summer time, I feel it adequate to finally post this!

It works perfectly on my skin both as a blusher on its own and swirled together.  I seldom use it as a bronzer because I'm not au fait with bronzer usage.

My current workday lip

Is this:

I was going to do a full on review of it but then I changed my mind because I think that if I'm wearing it to work practically everyday, I must really like it.

Here's how it fares on the old lippage:

You can see why I love it, the colour is gorgeous!  It lasts a pretty long time and the pigmentation is really good as you can see.  My top lip is darker than my bottom lip but this beauty makes them look the same colour.

What lippies are you currently loving?

The Swatch Files: L'oreal Paris Star Secrets Kit Penélope Cruz

I use this one a lot, it's my day to night palette, I whack the shadows on in the morning and if I'm going out I whack the blush and lipstick on.

I've labelled the eyeshadows incorrectly, in the palette 1 is the colour at the bottom and 3 is the colour at the top.

Excuse me, where the hell have you been?!

Remember last year when you went out shopping and picked up a right peach of an item? I do.

Remember when you came back home, swatched it, wore it about and realised that this new item was your new best mate? I do.

Remember when you vowed that this would be your signature eyeshadow/eyeliner/lipstick/lipgloss/foundation/blusher? I do.

Remember when you put it in drawer after putting your makeup on? I do.

Remember the next morning when you decided to switch it up a bit and use something different? I do.

Remember when you vowed to wear it the next day? I do.

Remember the days and weeks which followed where you totally forgot about your new best mate? I do.

Remember last week when you were rooting around your makeup stash trying to find something and came across your (neglected) new best mate? I do.

How does this happen?! I swear it's happened to me more times than I care to remember.  Remember that post I had before about items I was going to use more of this year? Well, these were the items I remembered at the time..turns out I had more which I had totally forgotten about, despite being in love with them when I bought them.  It's happened to me with a L'oreal Star Secrets Palette, Maybelline's Lash Stiletto (which I'm chucking out because it make my eyes itch after a few hours), my No7 glosses and countless other items.

However, I was quite shocked when I found these two lurking in my makeup drawers as I LOVED them when I first had them and then I totally forgot about them so from now on I'm going to make an effort to use them until they finish!

I seriously can't believe I totally forgot about Dune, I even reviewed it! Yinka recommended it as the perfect nude for women of colour (WOC's) and I trust her when it comes to those kind of statements so I snapped it up from ebay.  I got the 17 one from Boots in Terminal 5 when my mum went on holiday and I started to cry.  I'm such a dick, 25 years old and cries when her mum leaves for 2 weeks, despite the fact that I've gone months without seeing her when I was at uni.

Do you guys do the same with products? I think this might be something that only I do.

Review update

I was putting my face on today and realised that my current mascara (which is now no longer HG) wasn't really doing anything for me.  I remembered how thick my lashes were when I used my L'oreal mascara..I also remember that I said I wouldn't buy it because it made my lashes feel hard and that it smelt..so why was I reaching for it this morning?

So, with this in mind I decided to do a review of my reviews.  It' worked out pretty well because I have been using these items and my mind has changed about some as time went on..I think this kind of thing is useful for those of you, who, like me, take ages deciding whether or not to buy something and also equally useful for those who don't want to trawl through all my posts to find out about certain items.

By the way, if you click on the link it will take you to my original review.

Sleek palettes

• Still in love with these, falling more and more in love with them as the days pass.  I don't think theres an occasion where you CAN'T use them.

Benefit Badgal mascara

• Still not loving this, have tried it a few more times since the review but it has done nothing at all for me.

Maybelline Lash Stiletto mascara

• Have been teaming this up with the Maybelline Colossal and also using it alone.  I'd still buy it again as it makes my lashes longer.  No patent shine though.

Prestige My Biggest Lashes mascara

• Used this time and time again when I needed knockout lashes and it still works.  I have to remind myself that 2 coats is the magic key.  I'd still buy it again.

 Clearasil Pore Cleansing Pads and Boots Time Delay Balm

• I finished one tub of the cleansing pads and am half way through another.  I won't be buying these again, not because they don't work but because I've found something much better and also that the smell of these is VERY strong.  They're excellent if you have really oily skin and are prone to spots.
• I haven't finished a tub of the Boots balm as I have been using other cleansers but I have three backups which I will get through in time.  If I didn't have them, I'd buy it again.

Urban Decay eye shadows

• I loved these then and I still love them now.  The Illegal shade has been getting some serious love from me recently.  It's nice and matte and is my "my eyes but better" go to shade.  I'm going to incease my collection of these.

Biore Warming Blackhead Fighting Cream Wash

•  This was my lover back then and it still is now.  It's the only face scrub/wash that I've used consistently for more than a week.  I have half left and will buy it again.  The only issue I had with it was the fact that it gave me tiny whiteheads all around my nose..maybe because I used it despite having no blackheads? Anyway, if you do like me and do this, do not fear because I've found a cure..the things I do for you guys!

 MAC paint pot in Indianwood

• I wasn't too happy with how this looked in pics before but assured you guys it looked good IRL..which it did.  I tried it on many times since with varying amounts of UDPP and it just won't stick to my lids.  The colour is gorgeous but I just wish it would stay put! I won't be buying another one of these when the tub is finished.

Boots 17 Bronzed and Gorgeous palette

• Probably my all time fave freebie.  My current HG shadow has well and truly hit pan and I've been using my 17 palette for a while now and I'm loving the goldeny shade in it.  If they brought this out as perm, I'd buy it...or I'd buy £5 worth of products to get it free.

Boots No7 Eyeshadow Colour and Contour brush

• My thoughts on this brush are still exactly the same.  It's the shizz.  It's fluffy (but not too fluffy), it helps you blend like a pro and because the hairs are white, you can tell how much product you've picked up.  I'm buying it again when this one fails me.
  

Anatomicals Help the Paw hand cream and Badger Balm

• Nearly finished one "packet" of handcream and the Balm has well and truly finished.  Glad I bought backups of the hand cream, the sweet smell hasn't put me off yet!  I'd buy the Balm again too.

L'oreal Telescopic Explosion mascara

• I said I wouldn't buy it and honestly, I don't think I would.  It smells funny (this coming from a girl who has both the Colossal and Stiletto) and it made my lashes really really hard.  I wouldn't call it HG as I have Prestige for that so my opinion stays the same.
  

Review: L'oreal Telescopic Explosion mascara

Firstly, I’d just like to say that this month has been VERY review heavy on my behalf and there haven’t been near as many FOTD’s from me as I would have hoped. This is all going to change next month as I’m embarking on my face chart mission and I will be putting up at least ONE face a week from the Urban Decay face charts.

Now with the review..

This is going to be a really quick post about this mascara which I’m sure everyone has seen or at least heard of. I originally bought this mascara on the way home from work one day and then decided to return it as I saw and broke a tester model. In my defence I just touched it and the head rolled off.

That’s enough of my criminal damage antics for now...I returned that mascara and bought two Prestige ones which have been reviewed here already.

Fast forward a good few months and I find I’ve won a L'oreal goody bag which contains the aforementioned mascara.

I decided to test it out today and the result are not good.

The pictures will help me explain the point a bit better:

The tubing:

Many apologies for the cackhanded photo, not too sure what happened there. The tube is quite nice in that the shape is conical in nature and I like that, looks like it's eyeliner instead of mascara.

The brush:

I liked this because if you just use the tip, you get no mess on your lids. Be warned though, if ANY part of the brush which has the big black square around it, touches your lashes, it's clump city..

The eyes:

It looks as if the mascara has smeared my lids a bit but sadly that's not the case and my lids look like that naturally, boo! I swear I'm the only one who suffers from that ailment in the whole word.

Good points

The colour is a nice shiny black, it's the colour the Stiletto promised it would be

The lengthening effect is palpable, it's one of the best lengthening ones I've used

It's very easy to use, for those of you who get messy eyelids from conventional mascaras, this is a god send as it didn't mess my lids up at all

Bad points

Only lengthens and I want thickening so I may layer it up

It doesn't get into the roots AT ALL, the way you see my lash roots is the way they are without the mascara

Getting anything other than the tip on your lashes causes clumping and makes the mascara apply unevenly

Lashes feel very hard and clumpy

Purchase?

I don’t think I will buy this as I don’t really look for lengthening mascaras on their own, I have to say that I am quite impressed with how long they looked in the mirror but it’s still a no as it’s rather pricey for me. If it was about £4.00 then I would buy it but I wouldn’t spend £8.80 on it. If you want a purely lengthening mascara then you won’t be sorry buying this one as it does do that. Also, the packaging mentions fanned out lashes, this mascara gives you this so if you want wide looking eyes then purchase it. I, however, am fine with what I have, I think I may team it up with a thickening mascara and see what becomes of it.

Everyone’s a winner baby, that’s the truth, yes, the truth

Today I get home and this is waiting for me (all pics are clickable, the ones with a really small watermark open up pretty big):






I open it and find:

• Wrinkle Decrease Collagen Filler

• Colour Minerals Eyeshadow in shade 3

• Telescopic Explosion mascara

• Glam Bronze (blusher and bronzer in one)

• Visible Lift Foundation in Porcelain

• Age Perfect Intensive Reinforcing Serum

• Revitalift Face Contours and Neck Face Cream

• Infallible Longwear Lip Duo Compact

• 
  
  
  Color Riche in Sweet Tea (I think this is the Lip Gelee)

I didn't even remember entering this competition, the last time I went on the website was a good few months ago to check some hair colour for my mum! I've been on speed since finding this box. There was a little note which said if you have any questions to ring the agency which I plan on doing tomorrow as I'd like to test the foundation but in a shade which is closer to my skin colour, is that a rude thing to do? I've sent L'oreal a gushing email about how happy they've made me and that I plan to review the products on my blog, not so that they send me more free stuff but just because I feel that's kinda the least I can after getting so much for free. Rest assured that I will provide you with honest reviews.

Review: L'oreal Colour Riche Lipstick in shade 240: Dune

Yinka bought this and recommended that it would work for all WOC's so me being the sensible person I am rushed out and bought it on ebay, I got it for about £4 all in. For some reason I keep calling it Nude even though it's called Dune.

It arrived and I was a bit disappointed as I thought this colour would never suit my lips. I think I've got a bit of "see what you want rather than what is there" approach to my lips. I need to accept they're not pinky and they are more browny in colour and dress them accordingly. Anway, I digress...

I put the lipstick on and it smelt nice, smelt like something I had before but I couldn't remember what until today. It smells like a lipstick that Bourjois made about 8 years ago (I got it as a freebie in a mag I had to buy for Media Studies A Level). It looked really obvious and I was thinking it would never look decent on my lips.

So, here we go..

The lipstick:

The actual stick:
I had to take the photo with flash on to get the actual colour out, this is how it looks IRL. I'm having a mental block and can't think what colour that is but it is specked with glittery bits. Don't let that put you off as it's not OTT glitter, quite subtle...more like shimmer.

Swatched (daylight and no flash):

Swatched (flash):
On the lips (without flash):
On the lips (with flash):
Pardon the upper lip, I need to get it threaded *embarassed*.


Repurchase?
My general feelings about this lipstick are thus:

• It lasts a lonnnnnnnnnnnnng time, I ate quite a bit and it was still on
• The colour IRL makes my lips look like my lips but better
• It goes on really soft and creamy and doesn't dry your lips out
• In photos it makes your lips look really uniform and in "proper" pics (i.e. at a distance and of your whole face) it makes your lips look really natural
• It's well worth the money
  
• I would deffo repurchase this, in fact I think I may have to, I took these photos during the week and it's been used every day and I can see it getting smaller day by day.