Review: Mac MSF in Soft and Gentle

When L broke my Mac virginity back in March this was one of the first products that caught my eye as we browsed the counter. I was drawn to the pretty shimmer and was just discovering highlighters and the wonder of them at this point. This is a hugely popular Mac product and well known in the blogger world and in my opinion one well worth the hype.

It is my beautiful Mac Mineralize Skin Finish in Soft and Gentle. Excuse the messy package it is now 6 months old.  It retails for £21.50 (here). It's a soft powder with a baked texture. For the price you get loads of product. After using it every day since the end of March I'm just losing the dome shape now. So it really is going to last you a long time.

Soft and Gentle is the a warm golden slightly pinker nude skintone shade. It just adds the most beautiful lift to the skin. It's a slighty shimmery highlighter but you won't look like you're covered in glitter heading to a school disco (who else thought the glitter all over was a good look)

Look how pretty. And you can see here how it's nowhere near pan yet. I definitely think you'd get at least a years wear using it every day. I like to dust it on my cheek bones, down the bridge of my nose (with a very gentle hand) and under my brows. 

The mandatory swatch there for you. This photo is taken without flash!!

Here is a light dusting of it on the cheek for every day :)

Have you tried Mac MSF? I really want to try Lightscapade. It looks amazing!!

What's your best highlighter? I've found liquids just can't compare to this!!

Love M

xxx

I was given a highlighter powder for my 18th birthday from a family friend which was a limited edition Dior highlighter. It's in a silver case with a key ring style brush attached to the side and contains both silver/pink and yellow/gold highlighters and it has always been GREAT.

I still love it and have used it for every outing since my 18th and is still nowhere near pan whatsoever.

This combined with the fact I own high beam for a more subtle shimmer I never thought I'd actually need another highlighter for a looooooooooooong time.

I mean 6 years of usage and it barely looks like it's been used, why would i need to buy one if I've got this?

This was until M came to mine to get ready for our Reunion night out and I tried the MSF for the first time.

Unbelievable.

i couldn't believe how tiny the shimmer particles were and how easily they blended with the rest of my make up.

i genuinely couldn't believe how much of a 'glow' it gave me with one sweep across the cheeks and down my nose.

From the photos of the night you can clearly see in every single one how lush the effect is and quite frankly as soon as I get a job it will be one of the first things I will be buying!

(Along with some more Liz Earle!)

Have you tried it?

I tend to shy away from things that have been hyped up as I hate having the same as everyone else.

But I will be making an exception for this!!

L xxx

Review: Benefit Cha Cha Tint

I've been meaning to post this for such a long time!
In fact I thought i had already done so and thought I was going mad as I remember taking photos etc but there is no post to be seen!

This beauty is my current favourite cheek colour and has been for the past 2 months or so.

Benefit's Cha Cha Tint is a welcome addition to their tint family, having only contained a red and pink tint previously.

I love a coral orangey colour and especially during the summer months with a bit of high beam on your cheek bones it can look gorgeous with a tan!

My bottle is clearly a little scratched from usage as I had to retake my photos having lost them somewhere!

It is most definitely well used in my daily make up and also for nights out.

The consistency is similar to that of Posie Tint (the pink cheek tint) which is creamier than the original BeneTint which is a clearer liquid.

Also I should note at this point that i do love the nail polish bottle design, some people hate it but I'm a firm lover as it was the original design for so many of their products.

You can see below that the brush is quite easy to use and you can dispense as much or as little as you please  onto your cheeks.

I tend to put it on the apples of my cheeks and blend outwards towards my hair line so that most of the colour is on my cheeks, but a bit does flush up the sides making it look more natural.

As you can see in the picture below, this most definitely is a stain and in the time it took to take the above picture and then try to blend it, a mark was left behind!

Siiiigh!

Oh well, it shows you it's staying power and of course the colour blended in is lovely and natural.

After the success of our previous post about our reunion night out, I have even decided to take a photo of my face...shock horror!

Here's the before and after and you can clearly see the colour:

You can see where I've blended it in and it gives a really natural look.

It blends easily as long as you're quick and although looks a little bright initially it does seem to calm after a few minutes.

It also lasts really well particularly if your foundation or other base materials are long lasting and shine resistant.

Personally, I love it. I love all the cheek tints but I do despise the price!

At £24.50 this little bottle is quite expensive, but as no other brand has so far come up with a cheaper alternative (as brands such as Me Me Me have come up with dupes for Benetint, Posie tint, High beam and Moon Beam) I eventually caved!

If you were interested in trying Cha Cha Tint, Benetint or Sun Beam then your luck is in!

In Style are giving away a 4ml bottle with each of their November magazines out from the 4th of October.

Obviously there's only one bottle in each magazine so you're going to have to fight it out at the newsagents!

I picked up the one with Sun Beam as I almost bought it previously but didn't as I wasn't sure about it.

This is the perfect opportunity to try it out for £3.80!

Will you buying In Style to try it? Do you like Benefit and their cheek stains? I'm going to be testing mine out over the nest week!

L xxx

Review: Origins Samples

This is possibly a rather odd post, but I've had such good service at the Origins counters recently that I wanted to explain it a little more and write about the products I've had the pleasure of trying.

Firstly I love how every time I've been into John Lewis or Boots I've had a really nice welcome from the staff at the counter.

I know not everyone has this (M being one of them!) but I've never had a problem yet.

I managed to book myself a free facial in Origins in John Lewis when they had the beauty room for a week (as all the counters share it they get a week each)

Gym Update

For the past couple of weeks Thursday posts have been dedicated to the 'Bloggers Unite to Lose Weight' posts that M has been taking part in.

Luckily for her she's away this week in Florida (I'm so jealous sat at home writing my presentation for my diss!!) so instead I will be doing an update on my gym and fitness plans.

Links to the other blogs still continuing with the normal blog series can be found at the bottom of this post if you'd like to see them, M will be back next week with an update for you all!

So I have previously written 2 posts on my fitness goals and haven't updated in a while so this is the perfect opportunity for me to update my progress on the blog,

I've been continuing my efforts at the gym, upping my attendance to 5 times per week roughly as going to the gym gives me a well needed break from being sat a computer all day.

I've been taking part in 3 body pump classes (the fat burner) and body combat, whilst also trying out new classes such as spin, RPM and kettle bells, and keeping up with my interval training in the gym.

This combined with the occasional swim and dog walk plus the fact my mum is on slimming world means that I should be losing weight!

First up are my measurements.

I'm going to save myself the embarrassment of putting the actual numbers up.

In summary most have gone down by an inch, my thighs have gone down 2 inches and so has my waist which was really good news!

My bum has increased by 1.5 inches, which I'm not too bothered about as I didn't really have a bum before and the squats are clearly working to make it bigger which I do actually WANT to happen!
(Me and M are opposites of each other and moan about it constantly ha)

I think it would put me more in proportion and although I want to be smaller I do want all my curves still.

In my last post I said I wanted to look like this:

Which I very much still do!

I've always wanted a flat and toned stomach whilst still maintaining all of my curves.

Lately I've been finding Pinterest to be a great help for my motivation problems.

I never have a problem going to the gym, its working hard whilst I'm there that I seem to slack off on, I could push harder.

If you want to check out my boards on Pinterest my username is 'dora263', I have a whole board dedicated to 'Motivation for the Gym'

I just have a quick scan of the pins I have on that board and feel motivated to push myself harder!

I've weighed myself this week which I haven't done for about a month and have actually lost 2lb woohoo!

I was getting annoyed as even though I've been putting in so much work and eating really healthily I wasn't actually losing any weight.
I'd love to lose 10lbs more so I'm hoping to cut down on cake (my mum is still making it for my dad and brother and I really can't say no. It's the only time my will power fails!) and continue with my increased level of classes.

I've also started making smoothies in the mornings to have as my mid morning and mid afternoon snack.
I whizz a load of fruit together occasionally with a yogurt and split it half for each snack time to give me a vitamin boost and keep me going through meal times.

Often when I'm going to the gym in the morning I'll now have one of these for breakfast so it's easier on my stomach to digest before exercise too.

They all say every little helps right!

Would you be interested in seeing some smoothie recipes?
I've really been enjoying making them with so many things and they're so easy!


Hope you enjoyed my update! Let me know about recipes :)

L xxx