A Revlon Haul

In Boots at the moment, they have certain Revlon products on sale for £5.00.

As far as I'm aware, it's on all mascaras and eyeliners and then on the lip stains.  I'm a bit confused by the whole affair though as when I checked online a few weeks ago, it was also on some lipsticks.  Now it seems to have been scaled back to only what I've mentioned above.  Online, they're still showing as in the promotion but it's not the same story in store.

I bought the following for a total of £20.  I've not heard much about the Just Bitten lip stains so I did a very un-beauty blogger thing and bought blind.  I've used the Grow Luscious mascara before (and I love it) but have yet to use the matching pencil.

Does anyone have any experience of the lip stains?  Anyone planning on picking some bits up?  I was quite surprised that they were reduced by so much as we seldom get these kinds of deals in the UK.  The Boots page for the promo is here..

FOTD: Bright lip city gonna set my soul on fire!

I've been going through a bright lip phase at the moment which is something that I never thought I'd be doing.  These colours aren't fantastically bright but they're bright enough to allow me to strike the balance between bright and work appropriate.

My lips are pigmented and the top lip is darker than the bottom.  All three of these products mask that problem and apply uniformly to both lips.  The Korres tub is standard lipbalm size, the ELF tub really is that big. 

NOTD: Revlon Ruby Ribbon

This is a belated NOTD post, mainly because I drunk too much over Christmas and lost my camera lead.

I have had this polish for a fair while now but as red polishes aren't my thing, I never got around to wearing it until the festive season came about..

It stood up quite well without a topcoat considering how much chopping, peeling and general food fondling I undertook that day.  I know there's a boo boo on the middle finger but I'm a noob..

It says it's a matte polish but it wasn't totally matte..it had enough shine on it for me.  I think semi matte would be a better description.  It has small flecks of glitter in it which are a welcome touch.  It dries very quickly and was slightly streaky on my first coat but a second coat sorted that right out.  The brush provided me with no complaints and all in all, it's a nice polish.  The consistency is pretty spot on too, you don't find it hard to smooth it along the nail, nor does it slide down the brush at alarming speed when you're applying it..

The Swatch Files: Revlon Silver Fox Quad

It's not very often that I find a quad which not only has the desired amount of pigmentation but also has a decent enough variety of colour so that you're able to switch your look up from day to night by just adding another colour.

This palette is one of the good ones...

The grey and minty green shade are matte, the white and purple have a slight (very slight) shimmer to them..

I'm pretty impressed that the mint actually came out mint on my skin as usually they come out white.  They're all very soft and easy to blend..not so soft that they crumble..

The white looks a bit chalky but it's easy to blend out with a brush.  As for the sparkle..

It looks a bit gritty but that is due to my camera playing up, in reality, it catches the light really well without making you look like a glitterball.

Revlon A/W 2010 Suede Rhapsody: Mink, Smoked Peach and Stormy Pink lipsticks

I've never been a great lipstick expert so I've never really paid much attention to their different finishes.  When I was of makeup wearing age, the in thing was lipgloss so that's all we wore.  It's only now that I'm a bit older and that the major crush on lipgloss has gone that people are turning back to lipsticks.

This post has been a long, long time in the making as the weather changed before I was able to swatch Mink but I've finally managed a decent shot..

Anyway, rambles aside, the three I have from the Suede Rhapsody collection are Mink, Smoked Peach and Stormy Pink.  The former is creme and the latter two are mattes.

When I first saw these colours I was adamant they wouldn't work for me.  Mink really looks that dark in real life.  Then I saw Mink in a different light (ba dam tshhh) and it looked like it would suit my lips pretty well.  I still had reservations about the other two.

Then we went pink..

I really really like this.  It is one a very few pink lipsticks in my collection and it works very well with my skintone.  I find a lot of pink lipsticks make me look like I've stolen them from someone else with far paler skin than mine but this works well with my skintone.  I think(!) it is called a pink with blue undertones because I can see a bit of lilacy blueness in it when I have it on.  If that's the case, I know my shading at long last!  As you can see, it is a little drying but nothing some lipbalm underneath it and some lipgloss on top of it wouldn't fix.

Then things took a more orangey turn:

Words cannot express how terrible this looked on me.  It looks cringeworthly bad.  It looked even worse in the full face pic before I edited it down.  It is also a lot drier than Stormy Pink as you can see.  I'm not sure which skintone this lipstick would look good on.

Then came my favourite one, Mr Mink to you, Minky Minkerson to me..

This has been my go to worksafe colour ever since I got it.  It has the right amount of pigment, glides very nicely on the lips and the colour lasts a fair while.  It's a very easy colour to wear, I've managed to master putting it on without the aid of a mirror!

I've done some on the hand swatches for those who don't have pigmented lips like mine..

Although Smoked Peach and Stormy Pink are matte, I find they behave differently.  Stormy Pink isn't as drying as Smoked Peach.  You really need some extra moisture giver when applying Smoked Peach.  You need a little less if wearing Stormy Pink.

I have been alternating between Mink and Stormy Pink as I love how both of them look.  Mink is a brilliant "my lips but better shade" for us WOCs and Stormy Pink is the pink that I have been waiting for.  It works in perfect harmony with my skin.

Which of these three are your favourites? Do you like matte lipsticks or do you think they should have a bit of shine to them?

Review: Revlon Grow Luscious mascara

I've had this a fair while now and I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't open any new mascaras until I finished at least ONE old one.  It was torture knowing I had this in my drawer and couldn't crack open the wrapping and get to using..but I held on and when my Collection 2000 mascara went to the great mascara cemetary, this baby was ripped open with an amount of excitement which bordered on derangement.

Grow Luscious was released by Revlon at the time when "mascara with benefits" was the in thing..no longer did we (apparently) want a mascara to just make our lashes look longer, stronger, curlier and sexier but we also wanted it to make our lashes grow.  I'm not sure how that works as a gimmick as I find that good old Vaseline usually helps mine grow..and some brands should focus on making sure their mascara does the basics first, let alone runnning before walking.

At first I thought this was one of those mascaras that you had to use continually for 30 days or so until you saw some benefits.  I researched it (who said beauty bloggers were lazy?!) and found out that it was a hybrid mascara.

It makes your lashes look longer and more luscious (see what they did there?) on a daily but also helps them grow stronger in time..the stronger the lash..the harder it is to break I suppose.

A lot of people want their mascara to be packaged in a black tube, I don't know why that is but surely how the product works is more important?  Different strokes for different folks, I guess.  I don't discriminate..I love the fact that tubes of mascara now come in bright colours because I often leave one in my bag and anything other than black is easy to find.  I've never lost my Maybelline Colossal before and I doubt I'll be losing this.

The wand is pretty long and pretty big, I wouldn't say chunky as it doesn't look cumbersome.  It looks like it gets the job done.  It's your standard mascara wand..no funny twig like bristles..it looks the way you'd expect a mascara wand to look.

And here's how it looks in the old lashes..I took the last two photos to show the amount of curl this mascara gives me but it's not entirely clear.  I've never used another mascara which gave me this amount of curl before.  Clarins managed it with this offereing but the Revlon one blows that right out of the water.  I never realised until I took those pics just how hard it is to take a photo of your eye at that angle, hence why they're not in the best focus.

This mascara has easily made it into my top 3 mascaras (the other two being this and this..the other third one was this by Boots No7 but it doesn't compete when this comes into the running).  The photos don't show how truly long it made my lashes..you can kind of see in the last photos but I was asked by about 10 different people if I was wearing false lashes.  My lashes are definitely thicker and longer.  You know sometimes when a mascara gives you these results and you touch your lashes and find they're rock solid? Not with this one, they stayed soft all day long.  When I open my eyes, my lashes hit the skin just under my brows..and that's just with one coat.  I had to steady myself when I imagined the results I'd get from two coats..or dare I even say it..THREE.

Another reason why I love this is because I've recently been doing the walking stereotype look a lot and I find that a lot of mascara don't highlight your lashes against the liner as much as you'd like them to..I like to see the lashes poking up over the liner and this is brilliant for that.

The mascara can be bought from the usual places and it retails for £9.99.

My favourites so far this year..

Here they are:

Holy over saturation of colours, Batman!

I use all these products on either a daily or weekly basis which is pretty rare for me as I have so much crap.

MAC 239 brush: I really don't know how I managed to get my eye makeup looking decent before I had this (I probably didn't).  With regards to brush hair density, it does very well.  They're tightly packed but you can get away with laying down and blending too.  It's not my blending brush, simply because it's not meant for blending.  If you're lazy/doing a look with bright colours, get this brush and you won't be sorry.  You can use it for crease work too, I switch it up between the 239 and the Revlon brush.

Maybelline Colossal mascara: This is probably my all time favourite High Street mascara.  I use this every day and it has been going strong for a long long time.  I love this and my Prestige mascara but I think this slightly has the edge as it's foolproof and I get the same results regardless of how I apply it.  Thick, long, black lashes.

YSL Teint Parfait: I blab on about this foundation a lot.  It was the first thing I ever reviewed on my blog but I'll give you a quick review of it now.  It's an oil free "foundation".  I say " " because you can use it as a primer if your skin is not behaving.  I like the fact that it has a dual personality like that because once I put it on, it doesn't come off unless you take it off.  If you have oily/combo skin and want a foundation which makes you look dewy, buy this and you won't be sorry.  The single best thing about this foundation is being photographed..you look airbrushed.

I've got a swatch for you and it's clear it doesn't match the skin on my hand but it blends in seamlessly on my face.

Dove Therapy Heat Defence spray: I really like this.  I feel that it does protect my hair from heat and it leaves my hair looking shiny after I've straightened it and it smells quite nice.  It makes my hair feel softer too so I've started using it even when I keep my hair curly.  The best thing about it is that you can be heavy handed and it won't grease your hair up which is brilliant.

The Body Shop Facial Massager: I was intrigued with this when I first saw it online and decided to buy it when I saw it in store.  I use this on a weekly basis.  It smoothes my skin out a treat.  I also find that after using it, my skin absorbs moisturiser a lot better and it feels clean, like it's been drained of toxins.  It leaves my skin nice and pink after using it so I can feel that there is some massagey benefit there.  There's a full review here.

Korres Zea Mays blusher: This has fast become my "brown girl's can blush too" blush.  When I wear it, it actually looks like I'm blushing which is brilliant.  It does contain glitter but use a light hand and you're good to go.  It looks practically untouched but I've been using it more often than not..  You can buy it here and read my review here.

YSL Palette Pop: I have had this for a long long time and it's a tester. I don't know why I'm always saying that..but it is.  I think it's because I'm in shock that a tester lasts so long.  I use this on a daily basis, it's my "no effort" blush.  It looks so natural on me that you can't even tell that I'm wearing it most of the time.  People only notice that I don't look so perky when I don't have it on.

See? You wouldn't think that was WOC friendly but it is brilliant for my skintone.  It also looks pretty chalky but applies like a dream.

I haven't had these brushes for too long but they have found their way into my makeup bag.

Revlon Foundation brush: There's a full review here.  It's all good.  The brush is totally foolproof and works brilliant when the operator is functioning on around 5 hours sleep.  It costs about a tenner from Superdrug.

Revlon Blusher brush: I'm sure this brush was made just for me.  It fits the cheek area perfectly, stays soft and yet is dense enough to pick up just enough product.  The full review is here.  I think this comes in at around a fiver or so..it's less than a tenner!

What have your favourites been so far this year?

Review: Revlon Brushes

I'd been looking for the eyeshadow brushes featured here for a while now and I was kindly sent the whole range to use and review.

My initial thoughts:

• The handles smell "woody" and the hairs have no palpable scent
• Handles = perfect length apart from the eyliner brush..I've done some desi mechanics on it though.  For those of you who don't know what desi mechanics are, they're the sister of ghetto mechanics, i.e. making something work by doing some simple, at home tweaks.  My mechanics were to cut the handle shorter, file it down and paint it. 
• Each handle has the name of the brush (more helpful than you would think!)
• The handle width varies depending on which brush you use, for example, the handles on the foundation brush, the blush brush and the powder brush are very chunky which is conducive to how the product applies whereas the handles on the eyeshadow brushes are thinner
• The hairs on all the brushes are very soft. I've mentioned this here because you don't want to read the same thing 10 times over

Revlon Powder Brush RRP £10.99

The brush doesn't feel cumbersome which is something to be welcomed when it comes to makeup brushes.  I've used  it a fair bit but then I gave it to my mum because she uses powder more than I do.

She reports positively on its performance and I think it's pretty good too.  I use it for translucent powder and mi madre uses it for powder foundation and I feel that it distributes powder properly.  With my old brush, you could tell where I was wearing powder but application is pretty seamless with this one.

Revlon Blush Brush RRP £9.99

I feel this brush was made personally for me as it fits my cheek area perfectly (ooh er) and blending is a dream.  I tap the top part in my favourite blusher (currently this Korres one) and sweep the sides in the blush too. 

The brush is fairly chunky which makes application even easier.

Overall, I'm very happy with the brush.

Revlon All Over Shadow Brush RRP £6.99

I think the stiffness (har har) is spot on.  I use this to just add a shade all over my eyelid and blend it out.  The hairs are black which make it a bit hard to see how much colour you've loaded onto the brush but I think that's a minor point because who honestly doesn't dip back into their eyeshadow when they're blending?

You get all the control you want and I think the results from using this brush are far better than any other blender brush I've used.

Revlon Contour Shadow Brush RRP £7.99

This was the brush I was most looking forward to using.  I've been trying to improve my application skills for ages and I think that I have finally cracked it and it may be in part due to this brush   It picks up just the right amount of shadow (no need to tap it off or anything).  The handle really lets you get into the crease and blend it on out.

I'm quite happy with my skills now and this brush has worked it's way into my daily brush arsenal.

Here are some practice eyes I did with the two brushes:

I can clearly see a marked improvement comapred to what I usually come up with.  I used two shades of blue and a black shadow on the blue eyes so I'm chuffed at how well it blended.  The middle eye could have done with a bit more blending but I only learnt my final trick when I was doing the blue eye.  I originally did a "thick winged look" but then wanted to see if I could blend it up into a more rounded piece and I could!

Revlon Eyeliner Brush RRP £6.99

This was the last brush I used from the collection.  It's not because it's crap, it's because eyeliner is a fiddly thing and I don't have time to sit down and be all nicey nicey with makeup when I'm rushing off to work.  So, this is a pure weekend brush. 

I have one simliar to this by Ruby and Millie but I decided to use it with my all time favourite gel liner (there's a post about that coming up, very soon) and it was a bit of a fail.  I don't think these brushes are made for gel liner..does anyone know what type of liner they are made for? The packaging didn't say and I can't see you using liquid liner with it simply because of logistics.

I used my Smashbox powder liner and got better results..I'm a bit unsure about this one.

Revlon Foundation Brush RRP £10.99
I love the feeling of this brush. The hairs are pretty densely packed for a foundation brush but it is still fluffy enough to apply foundation properly.

Blending was flawless and it took me literally minutes to apply a full face of foundation. It used to take me ages before but this brush is a brilliant time saver.

I never used to wear foundation every day but since I've had this brush, it's become a daily occurence for me and I will be finishing my second (ever!) tube of foundation very soon. 

Revlon Concealer Brush RRP £5.99

I don't use concealer so I thought it a bit pointless if I reviewed a brush for that purpose because I wouldn't know what to look for.

I handed it over to my cousin who has been using concealer since the day she was born and she absolutely loves it.  She used it with liquid concealers and solid concealers (she used this and this).

She liked the fact that the brush was soft but still firm enough to apply concealer without making it look patchy.

I personally like the way the hairs are coloured in a similar way to the foundation brush so that you instantly know that this is the concealer brush.

I use it to apply a highlighter under the arch of my eyebrows and it places the product perfectly.

All in all, these brushes are pretty good for the price and I'd recommend them all.  The handle on the eyeliner brush needs to be smaller but I find that's a problem with all eyeliner brushes, not something unique to this one.

The Swatch Files: Revlon Colorburst Lipsticks

These babies were released yesterday in the good old UK and the ones featured here came to me directly from Revlon HQ.

I tried to get an artsy shot in here a la this lady but er..you can judge the effort for yourself.

I picked them up this morning and although this is a Swatch Files post, it comes with rambling..I haven't had a chance to trial them to my usual extent so here are my first thoughts about them:

• I love the packaging, it reminds me of packaging that the high end brands tend to favour, it's nice and sleek.
• I'm also suitably impressed with the embossing on the bullet, I'm sure that Chanel used to do this..I can't remember if they still do but anyway..it looks pretty bitchin'
• When you first put the lipstick on your lips, it follows the outline of your lower lip..smack your lips together and it transfers to the top lip..it's easy to fill in your lips and you get a natural looking lip coat.  It's like a lipstick for noobs which suits me perfectly.  I think this is BRILLIANT and if Revlon did it on purpose then they should deffo use this in their marketing because I'd snap up a lipstick that made application a doddle.  If it's totally by accident then they should stick with this bullet design
• My lips are not the same colour, one is darker than the other..which is something quite common for ladies of a darker skin tone..this lipstick manages to make both lips look the same colour which is something I always want from a lipstick
• They're nice and moisturising, I've had one colour on all morning and it hasn't dried my lips out.
• They last for a long time too..once again, I've had this colour on all morning and have eaten a fair bit and it's still going strong!

I'm quite glad I got the chance to swatch these as I find that there is a lack of swatches on Indian skin online, anyway..

Le swatches!

I've edited the pics so that they're as close to real life as possible which is why my skin is different colours in some of them. Also, I just noticed how the camera gets closer to my lips as the swatches diminish, as you can see, form and order aren't words I'm familiar with.

If you want some "on the skin" swatches, Charlotte's got all over them over on her blog.

Revlon Colorburst are on sale now in Boots, they're currently on full price but Boots do have a 3 for 2 dealy on.

Review: Revlon Matte Blush

I was sent this by Revlon along with the makeup remover pen which I love.

This was originally just going to a swatch in The Swatch Files but I felt the need to give it a proper review.

I have had this just as long as I've had the makeup pen but have kept this in my makeup drawer as it looked too nice to use.

I decided to get over myself and use the thing and this is what I found.

First, here's what the blusher looks like:
Flash off:

Flash on:

The colour looks like a nice light dusky pink colour and I have blushers which look the same in the pan so I thought this would work well with me.

I've been calling this my James Bond makeup simply because when you press the a button, the mirror pops out with the quickness.  I really like the sleek, black packaging that Revlon are going for with this matte range.  The mirror is both a blessing and a curse.  When I dabbed my brush in the product, it flew everywhere.  If you were to tilt the mirror up to see your cheek (as you would when on the Tube/in the car), you'd get blusher over your outfit or places of your face where you don't want blusher).

Revlon claim that it "brushes onto cheeks smoothly and effortlessly for a soft matte look and a smooth, even finish.  Perfectly defines and contours the cheekbones.  Face-flattering range of shades from nude to berry with a soft-matte finish."

What did I think?
I didn't like the blusher because it had poor pigmentation pay off and it was pretty chalky to apply.  I didn't use the brush which came with it because I never get on with those kind of brushes.  Smooth seems to be the key thing which this blush is touted as giving you but I didn't find that to be the case at all and the swatches will show you why.

I feel I should explain a bit about the poor pigmentation.  I am Indian, therefore lighter colours find it hard to show themselves on my skin.  I thought this may have been the case here but I went to Boots and swatched the darker shades and they were just as hard to convert.

I have a YSL blush which is matte but you get a smoother colour from it.  Also, I had greasy cheeks when I used it and it was still chalky. 

I used my kabuki brush to pick up colour and then my fingers and this is all the colour I got:
No flash:

Flash on:

The colour with the flash off is the most accurate shade.  I'm quite disappointed by this product because I love the matte blushes but I can see I will have to look elsewhere to find a High Street equivalent of my YSL blush.

Purchase?
I wouldn't purchase this as the colour payoff isn't as good as expected and it's chalky.  I really wanted this to work for me as I dislike blushers with glitter in them.  Don't let the poor performance of this product put you off other Revlon things because I love the pen and the mousse foundation.

Review: Revlon Colorstay Mineral Mousse foundation

I kept telling everyone that I thought this was a tinted moisturiser when (if I'd read the packaging) it clearly says that it's foundation. Anyway, I didn't pay for it, Yinka had a giveaway on her blog and I won it..aren't I smart?

Here's the packaging:

That's the exact colour that Deep is. My camera did me well and picked it out as it should be.  I really like the packaging of this one, it looks really nice and sleek, I find it quite rare to have a liquid foundation/tinted moisturiser which comes in black casing.  I thought it would be a bit too dark for me but it's quite a good match really, as far as web swatches go, Revlon's are quite good compared to some other companies out there.

Ingredients...there are a fair few.

Swatchy swatcherson:
Flash, no blending:

No flash, no blending:

Blended and flashy:

Blended and no flash:

I have been testing it alongside my Korres moisturiser which, as you know, has totally eliminated the grease from my face.  My Korres finished the other day and I've been using a cheapo organic cream from Tescos which doesn't smell too pleasant and has done a satisfactory job at keeping the grease away.

So, what do Revlon say?
"A flawless matte finish in a refreshingly lightweight mousse.

Unique, air-whipped texture for a soft matte finish.
16-hour ColorStay Longwear for lasting perfection."

Does it hold up to the claims?
In a word, yes.  It makes your face feel soft and once you get over the dust-face, it's a really good foundation and you don't need to use too much initially and you need not touch it up for the whole day.

Consistency wise, it is a pretty thick foundation to use (compared to what I normally use) and you do have to work fast to get good results but that's not really a downside because your human instinct (as you can tell, I've never been one to trivialise a matter) tells you how best to blend it. 

I really like this as both a foundation and a tinted moisturiser (I tend to apply my foundation really sheer).

However, there are some issues which I found I had with it.

Revlon don't state that it is for greasy skin but I think the fact that it states that it gives you a "soft matte finish" speaks for itself.  Whilst I used Korres, my skin was more normal than combo and I found that it if you hadn't practiced before applying it, it would make you look a bit dusty.  I usually apply a bit of foundation on the back of my hand and pick it up with my brush and then "dispense" it all over my boat race.  I tried this with this foundation and it was kinda hard to blend as it had dried whilst travelling from my hand up to my face.  Then I dotted it on my face and used the brush, this too didn't give me the desired effect.  Finally, I decided to just use my fingers and that seemed to work pretty well.  I don't think the foundation will work too well with normal skin but you may have different application methods to the ones I mentioned above.

Another MASSIVE plus point is that it has SPF in it and not just some piddly SPF 1, it's got SPF 30 which is great. .

Purchase?
I don't think I will be buying this despite giving it such a positive review.  Had I used this without using Korres I would have said yes.  However, my skin care plan is to use Korres in the summer as it turns my skin into normal skin more than combo and so I don't need anything else to make me look matte. If I struggle with greasy skin in the winter/really hot summer days then I will definitely purchase this.  The product is very good but I don't think it will sit well with normal skin.

It's not out in the UK yet, it should be out at the end of the month and it will retail at £9.99.