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The Ordinary Colours Serum Foundation

If you follow me on social media, you know I have not shut up about The Ordinary over the past few weeks. It is a really affordable but effective skincare brand created by Deciem. They have now released two foundations. I managed to get my hands on both! So, I thought I would break it down into two blogposts, in case one takes your fancy more than the other. This post is dedicated to The Ordinary Colours Serum Foundation.

Now I knew ordering this foundation, that it probably wouldn’t be compatible with my oily skin, but I wanted to try it regardless. The hype about this brand is just too much, and it’s super affordable to boot 🙂

The Ordinary Colours Serum Foundation comes in a 30ml plastic bottle with a rubberized plastic pump.

The packaging works really well and is very sleek for the price. My only gripe with it is that because the pump is matte, it tends to get really grubby with foundation. You can order a glass pipette for it separately if you’d rather apply it with that.

The foundation comes in an abundance of shades from super light to super dark. 21 shades in total! It also comes in tones aswell which is even more awesome! So you can choose from pink, red and neutral undertones. There are 3 shades with S and G as the undertone, which stands for silver and gold. These have added highlight in them. Deciem say they will eventually create separate enhancers and highlighter so we can customise. I ain’t mad at that!

I totally guessed my shade and did a pretty good job I think. I went with 1.1N (neutral).

The formula is light and nearly runny when you pump it out. It is a serum foundation, so that’s completely what you would expect. They use high saturated pigment, so a little goes a long way.

To me, this is a light but build-able to medium foundation. It blends in to the skin really nicely and definitely covers up and even out any discolouration. A little goes a fairly long way. It doesn’t settle into lines and is really light weight on the skin too.

Here in Europe it is deemed SPF 15 (there is different regulations in different countries). The finish for me is more on the dewy side which again is what I expected. But, it’s not greasy on the skin. I’ve been wearing The Ordinary Silicone Primer with it and they work well together.

Before:

I usually just pump some directly onto my face.

After:

Obviously you can see it in action on my skin in the pics above, but I used it in a recent video here too, so you can see it kinda sorta in ‘real life’! When I first apply it, it has gives a velvet like finish to the skin. There’s definitely more of a glow to it after it settles though. I personally wouldn’t get more than a couple of hours wear out of before the oiliness wins the war. But if I use a good primer and powder (alot), I can get a bit longer.Having said though, if you have more dry, combo skin, this will work a treat for you. It is a gorgeous everyday foundation.

The Ordinary Colours Serum Foundation is currently out of stock on the Deciem website (sorry), but you can sign up here to be notified when it’s back in. It costs a ridiculously reasonable €6.70. Deciem also offer free shipping over €25.

Are you intrigued? Have you tried it yourself? Let me know 🙂

xxx

May 31, 2017/by Gem

Bargain Buying, Makeup

Essence My Must Haves Palette

The Essence My Must Haves Palette are such a great addition to the makeup brands line!

Affordable interchangeable palettes. They come in two sizes. You can buy a quad of an empty palette of eight.

Within the Essence My Must Haves Palette range, there is 20 eyeshadows shades, five blushes, and three lip powders, all with different finishes to choose from, There is also a pink lip base for the lip powders, a highlighter, a bronzer and a fixing powder. All I believe, retail for €1.90 individually.

You purchase the Essence My Must Haves Palette empty and then you can fill them with whatever shades or products you may want from the range. The four pan retails for €1.90 and the eight pan €2.50. All the individual pans are the same size. You just take them out of the cardboard and they click into the palette.

The name and what the actual product is on the bottom of the pan which is handy too.

I have two four pan palettes here filled to give you a closer look at some of the shades on offer.

One of them is actually part of the Essence 15th anniversary live.laugh.celebrate trend edition collection.

There is even more shades release with this collection and the packaging looks a little cooler too 🙂 The trend editions are generally limited edition.

Here are the pans I have swatched and named to give you a closer look and to see how they perform on the skin:

With Flash

Without Flash

Cotton Candy Eyeshadow:

Best Friends Are Forever Eyeshadow:

Peach-Party Eyeshadow:

Celebrate Good Times Eyeshadow:

Black As A Berry Eyeshadow:

The Sun Is Shining Eyeshadow:

Raspberry Frosting Eyeshadow:

Everybody Dance Now Lip Powder:

And that’s all that I have swatched :). All of the shadows I own are shimmery, but I believe there is matte ones available to choose from too.

The Essence My Must Haves Palette collection are in stores right now! Are you intrigued?

********PR SAMPLE**********

May 3, 2017/by Gem

Makeup

Makeup Geek Favourites

I definitely need more Makeup Geek products in my life! But, I am really happy with everything I have bought so far. The quality in my humble opinion is really great, as is the price point. Although, shipping from America is a pain for us Irish. Beauty Bay now stock the brand (albeit a bit more expensively). But sure look, I won’t get into that now 🙂

I thought I would do a post of my most used eye products from the Makeup Geek brand. I love everything I have but these are five (yep for some reason five is my go to number for things like this :)) that I reach for a lot :).

I managed to whittle it down to two eyeshadow pigments and 3 single eyeshadows.

The first pigment is ‘Enchanted’.

This is just the most beautiful shimmery pinky purple colour. What a description I know! But it looks more pink or more purple depending on the light and if you use a base underneath it. I feel like this shade brings out the green in my hazel eyes which I really like. It packs a punch but isn’t too in your face or dramatic.

The second pigment is ‘Insomnia’.

This for me is like Mac ‘Club’ eyeshadow taken to the next level. This does actually come in eyeshadow form in the Manny Palette from Makeup Geek. It is the coolest green brown duo chrome pigment. You can just use this on your eyes and be good to go. Depending on how you blend it or what base you use, Insomnia looks either more green or more brown with an iridescent shine to it. It’s probably one of my all time favourite eye products…ever!

My three eyeshadow favourites came from my neutral Makeup Geek eyeshadow stash! I went with:

‘Peach Smoothie’ which is a matte light peach colour.

I think of this as like my eyeshadow eraser. I use it before I blend any colour in to the crease so they have something to blend into. I also use it after to diffuse the colour and make it more gradient.

‘Cocoa Bear’ is a warm rich matte, medium brown shade.

I use this shadow for everything. All over the lid, in the crease if I want to add some warmth. But, I particularly like adding some blown out under the lash line to add a bit of interest to a simple (or, not so simple look).

My last choice is the foiled eyeshadow ‘In The Spotlight’.

When I don’t know what I want to do with my eye makeup but I know I want to make an effort, this is my go to shade.

Foiled shadows are like a mixture between a cream and a powder and they have a metallic finish. ‘In The Spotlight’ is a shiny peachy coral-ly shade. Another great description Gemma 🙂 This is just the prettiest all over the lid shade, or it works great as an inner corner highlight. Depending on how much shine you want you can use this with a wet or a dry brush. Or you can be super lazy and just use your finger to pat it on. It works great like that too.

So there you have it. My five most used Makeup Geek eye products. Honestly, I love them 🙂

What’s your favourite? I need an excuse to go shopping 🙂

xxx

October 26, 2016/by Gem

Makeup

Seventeen Mega Matte Lipsticks

I was sent three of the very soon to be released Seventeen Mega Matte Lipsticks. Since they are due for release on the 3rd of August, I thought I better get them swatched asap and give you a closer look of the shades I have in my possession.

According to Seventeen, “This Summer’s bold, matte lip couldn’t be easier with the launch of new Seventeen Mega Matte lipsticks. The makeup bag must have range of 12 long lasting, high impact shades glide on smoothly for pout perfecting colour.”

The shade range of the Seventeen Mega Matte Lipsticks is pretty varied. It covers those of us who enjoy a nude or muted lip colour and then caters to the more daring lipstick colour risk takers 🙂

The three colours I have from the range give a good indication of the colour spectrum I think.

I have “Nude News” which is of course the nude matte of the bunch. It is a pink toned nude.

Then, “Lava You A Lot”. An intense orange matte shade.

And finally, “Violet Summer”. A pinky matte purple. Which although feels matte, does have a kind of pink iridescent to it.

My first impressions of the Seventeen Mega Matte Lipsticks are good! I love the packaging, I do enjoy a thinner bullet on a lipstick 🙂

I find myself less inclined to squash them with the lid and I find application a bit easier too. The texture of the lipsticks themselves is soft and applies well. Like with any matte lipstick though, your lips need to be in good condition as dry patches will show through. They are of course drying on the lips too, although I don’t find them too tightening or uncomfortable.

I’ve only swatch them so far, so I can’t tell you yet about staying power, but be sure to ask me on social media over the next while and I can let you know how I got on wearing them out and about 🙂

The Seventeen Mega Matte lipsticks are available from Boots in store and online here from the 3rd of August. Their recommended retail price is €6.29.

xxx

August 2, 2016/1 Comment/by Gem

Archives, Bargain Buying, Makeup

Sleek Whimsical Wonderland Collection

The new limited edition Sleek Whimsical Wonderland Collection contains three colours of their new gel blushes, three new limited edition complimenting shades of their VIP lipsticks and what I am showing you in this post, the ‘All The Fun Of The Fair’ eyeshadow palette.

I do love a Sleek eyeshadow palette so I was excited when I saw one left on the shelf in Boots while I was doing my new in makeup beauty rounds 🙂

Like all Sleek iDivine Eyeshadow Palettes, the shadows are packaged in a thin, matte plastic case with as always a large handy mirror in the lid.

The name ‘Whimisical Wonderland Collection’,I think is most fitting to the ‘All The Fun At The Fair’ Palette. To me, the other products are quite normal and wearable everyday colours, whereas the palette is a pretty assortment of matte and shimmery pastel shades.

So onto the swatching 🙂

As with all of the Sleek palettes, you get a plastic sheet over the top of the shadows telling you their names, which are all very cute and fitting to the ‘All The Fun At The Fair’ theme.

Here they all are swatched from left to right:

Carousel

Shoot The Chutes

Loop The Loop

Ferris Wheel

Twister

Teacups

Hit The Bell

Swing Boats

Hook A Duck

Helter Skelter

Dodgems

Hall Of Mirrors

On first swatch, I can tell that the shimmers definitely pack more of a punch than the mattes do. Unfortunately, this is the case for alot of palettes, especially when it comes to brighter matte colours. Overall, the shades feel really nice, none of them are powdery or hard to work with. I think there’s some good wearable shades in the All The Fun Of The Fair palette for the lid, the crease and transitioning, aswell as some interesting shades that will be fun to play around with maybe with a white base to help them pop a little more.

You can pick up the whole Sleek Whimsical Wonderland Collection from Boots in store as well on the Sleek website. Cloud10beauty have the whole collection here too if you want to have a closer look at the other products included. The All The Fun Of The Fair Palette will set you back €10.45 on Cloud10beauty.

xxx

June 15, 2016/1 Comment/by Gem

Archives, Bargain Buying, Makeup

Essence Longlasting Eye Pencil

The Essence Longlasting Eye Pencil is a little bargain of a find. I picked these up randomly in Penneys when I was really just looking for new things to try.

I picked up three shades in the Essence Longlasting Eye Pencil range but they have a fair few colours to choose from, even a nude one now which is handy. You can see all the colours here on the Essence website. Like their lipliners I reviewed here on Beautynook not too long ago. I am sure I will end up with all the colours in my collection at some stage 🙂

The shades I have are:

19 Hot Scorch.

This is a bronzed shimmery brown shade.

09 Cool Down.

This is a slightly metallic navy blue.

05 C’est La Vie!

A metallic silver.

The Essence Longlasting Eye Pencils are a retractable pencil in a plastic casing which I personally prefer over the standard pencil format. The product itself is really soft, so glides on smoothly onto the skin. The colour pay off (as you can see from the swatches) is pretty great too! The formula does dry so you get good longevity out of it, even on the waterline, although they do last longer on the skin.

I honestly think these are a fab find for makeup novices and addicts alike. If you are looking to experiment with colour, these are a great way to begin too. And the best part? Like the lip liners, the Essence Longlasting Eye Pencil will set you back just under 2 euro! Not a bad deal at all, right? As I said, I got mine in Penneys, but I am sure any of the chemists who stock Essence would have these if they update their stands regularly. If you see them, give them a swatch and let me know what you think 🙂

As always, thanks for stopping by!

xxx

March 11, 2016/2 Comments/by Gem

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