Review: Origins Eye Doctor

I mentioned a while ago (here) that I've been having a few problems with my eyes, particularly with wearing lenses and them generally watering and running down my face and ruining my make up.

My optician told me it could be to do with allergies but as it was December when this started it was unlikely, so ever since I've been wearing my glasses as much as possible and putting drops in so they don't get too dry.

(I've been told it was down to me wearing my lenses for a ridiculous amount of hours per day whilst trying to do a full time Masters and full time job, listen to what they say when they remind you to have a 'contacts free day. because I'm paying for it now!)

Because of this I've been taking care of my eyes a lot more than I used to, I know everyone wants to look good and have amazing skin but you only get one pair of eyes so this has been priority numero uno for me for a while!

After buying the Origins No Puffery Eye Gel and absolutely loving it, I went back for another purchase, this time their Eye Doctor eye cream:

Review: Bourjois Mineral Radiance Pressed Powder

I've written this post many times, and blogger seem to want to delete it.

So instead of attempting to remember what I wrote before, my review will be brief as I can't keep writing about the same product for the post to disappear!

Recently I've been using my Mac Pressed Powder which is awesome, but I've hit the pan so damn fast that I can't justify buying it all the time.

So the Mac remains in my make up bag for when I go out or when I feel like I'm having a crappy day and need cheering up...

For general day to day wear, I thought I'd try this, Bourjois Mineral Radiance Pressed Powder:

It's a third of the price of the Mac pressed powder and seems to be lasting 5 times longer!

This seems to be a very good random buy on my part, as I was at the end of my tether and bought the first pressed powder I saw haha.

This has a very strong floral powdery scent, which was a little weird to me

It reminds me of old people, which in itself isn't a bad thing, just surprising as I didn't expect it

It comes with a powder puff inside which I don't generally use when I apply my make up first thing, but keep there in case of emergencies when I'm out and about.

It also has a mirror inside, which I suppose is a standard thing.

This product isn't the same quality as the Mac pressed powder, but it isn't far off and for a third of the price it is definitely worth it.

It did last me a long time during the day but my skin is so oily that it needs to be repowdered throughout the day anyway, I've come to terms with this!

Their colour range is pretty good also, and although I wasn't sure which one to go for, when my skin has it's weird days of being super pale and then being a more human colour this powder seems to work.

I've also tested it out at the gym which I find is always a good test.

I applied it in the morning as usual and then in the afternoon after working in the lab went to the gym and it kept my make up in place even with all of the sweating.

(I know you're supposed to take your make up off when you gym but I just can't do it, I feel far too naked and my skin just isn't good enough)

So there we have it, if you love Mac but can't afford the price tag all the time, save it for special occasions and I'm sure this one will fulfill your needs in between :)

Have you tried any other pressed powders?

I couldn't really find many on the market so am interested to know!

L xxx

Review: Maybelline Illegal Length

I haven't bought a mascara from Maybelline in a long while, but I seem to be on a mascara shopathon at the moment as I have loads!

This week's review is on Maybelline's Illegal Length mascara which I bought in Blackest Black.

One thing I like about Maybelline's mascara is that they all come in packages, meaning nobody has opened it and messed around with it before you have.

This is always a massive bonus as who wants a mascara that someone else has put on their eyes?! Sharing a mascara wand shares more bacteria than sharing a toothbrush does, always remember that!

I firstly was drawn to the sleek and super cool curvy packaging, I have plenty of curves myself and this looks really cool as it still stands up and is a welcome break from the bog standard casing.

I also love pink so go Maybelline for stamping the name on with a girl's favourite colour!

I've had this since it came out and have been wearing it for the past few weeks.

My eyelashes if you haven't read a post from me before are luckily very long, however they're poker straight and won't curl whatever you do with them.

I find lengthening and volumising mascaras work best as I never have any joy with curling ones, if you have any suggestions feel free to comment below with them as I'm always up for trying new ones!

What I didn't realise about this mascara was that it contains fibres, silly I know, I obviously bought it purely based on the name and the packaging which I'm sure we've all probably done before.

So the fibres were a surprise for me however they were also a bit hit and miss.

I SWEAR some of the fibres in mine were actual bits of fluff!

I actually pulled them off the mascara brush and they were centimetres long not millimetres, what is that about?!

If you look closely you can see on the brush that some of the fibres are rather large, and as I wear contact lenses this isn't normally the kind of mascara I go for.

Having said that, I did quite like it as a day to day mascara, it did increase the length of my lashes and thicken them out a bit with the fibres but it wasn't anything that I would 100% rave over and I'd probably want something with more impact for going out in the night.

Overall I liked the packaging, the name and the price but felt this was you average day to day mascara that didn't live up to it's name, my lashes were in no way illegal in length!

What mascaras do you use? Are there any new ones out that I should try?

L xxx

Review: Sleek Blush by 3 Lace

When these were first realised I was instantly drawn to this palette. I thought it had the best selection of colours, but never got around to picking it up or even looking at them in Superdrug until a few weeks back when I went shopping with L. We are the worst influence on each other and always spend a fortune when we just meet to 'window' shop. You can see what other bit's I picked up here.

Who doesn't love a boxed product. Always makes it feel a little more luxurious. For £10 for 3 blush these palettes are such good value and you get a large amount of each shade too. Lace is out of stock online, but they still have the others. Found here. They still had them in my local superdrug but all the blush by 3 palettes were in the draws and not out on display. How annoying.

This is my first sleek product. How pretty is the packaging, textured black and the sleek logo simply printed in a shiny black. My love for the slightly rubberised black packaging of course didn't last long as similar to products such as Nars mine is now covered in my foundation finger prints, ooops.

They have the shades printed on the back but don't seem to stock the shades separately. I thought I'd instantly use the middle shade first as it was similar to Sleek's Rose Gold blush that never seems to be in stock in Superdrug (do you find the sleek stands poorly stocked around you aswell?

So here are the shades. In the pan they scared me, swatched they scared me. Blended I love them. These blushes are so pigmented you only need the smallest amount. They blend so easily. I find they do break up slightly with my brush so I find it best to just lightly dab my brush into the selected colour rather than sweep it across and end up with powder and a brush with way to much product.

Photo heavy section, as you can see the colours come out so bright so if you like a bright blush look no further or they can be blended for a softer look. I can honestly say I have used this blush every single day since I picked it up. I didn't expect to love it as much as I do. The colours are so wearable, so easy to blend and just look so pretty on. I find myself using the orange more than the others, something I didn't expect. I'm definitely not normally an orange blush girl but it gives a pretty flush. The middle shimmer shade is a very shimmery blush so I tend to use this one more as a highlight if I'm not using my MAC one. The red shade blends to a gorgeous winter flush on the skin, think English rose.

I cannot praise this product enough. I can't see me looking at other blushes for a while. They are amazing and they will definitely last me a while too.

Have you tried any of the Blush by 3 sets? I'm considering getting a second, any recommendations?

Love M

xxx