Top 5 Foundations

Foundation is something I wear pretty much everyday, but talk about very little here. I'm pretty fussy when it comes to foundation, I like good wear time, good coverage, a not too matte but not too dewy finish, something that looks natural and something that doesn't feel heavy on my skin. Not too much to ask, hey?

My go to foundation, if I want good coverage, good wear time and a nice natural finish is the Max Factor Facefinity Foundation (this is the same as the Cover Girl 3in1 Outlast Foundation). I know that this is a perfect colour match, really good coverage, but also really natural looking. This is the one foundation I absolutely couldn't be without in my collection.

A runner up in terms of coverage is the Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation, a good medium coverage foundation that I love the finish of, it's not dewy but it gives a natural glow to the skin and just looks really healthy.

The YSL Le Teint Touche Eclat Foundation is one I've been loving for well over a year now. This is definitely the 'glowiest' of these bases, it's definitely my personal preference to powder the t-zone when I reach for this foundation, but I love the glow this gives my cheeks. It's a medium but buildable coverage, and it can be sheered out too, so it's really versatile. It doesn't wear as well as the previous two foundations, but with a primer it'll last the day. 

The new foundation love in my life is the Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua, which I penned an ode to here quite recently. It's so light on the skin, it doesn't feel like you're wearing makeup, but it has a good medium coverage, which is pretty impressive. Like the YSL offering, the wear time alone isn't great, but paired with a primer it's fine. I just love the finish of it, it just looks like skin!

And lastly, an old favourite that still impresses me is the Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Foundation. This gives medium but buildable coverage, and a nice almost matte, but glowy finish. I always get told how healthy my skin looks when I wear this. 

What are your favourite foundations?

Top Five Eyeshadow Palettes

When it comes to eyeshadows, I'm pretty predictable. It's all about the neutral palettes. So, you should be fairly unsurprised that four of my top palette picks are all neutrals! 

I should point out that there are decent palettes on the highstreet, I just massively prefer the formulation of high end eyeshadows. In fact, I think eyeshadow is the one product that I wear everyday that is high end, I just prefer them!

Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Backed, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal

Let's get the obvious out of the way, one of the Naked palettes was going to be in here wasn't it. I have both the Naked and the Naked 2 (and soon to be the proud owner of the Naked 3) but I think I get more use out of the original of the two. Particularly at this time of year,  I tend to prefer warmer toned shadows, which has me reaching for this. I do wish there was more matte shades in here though! I love that this palette has lots of combinations that work really well together, and you don't have to think about what you're doing too much! My favourite shadow combinations are Toasted & Hustle, Half Baked & Smog, and Sin & Hustle. Urban Decay shadows just own it really, they have every possible colour, and they're so buttery and smooth, and they last all day with incredible pigmentation.

Hush, Quarry, Mulch & Corduroy

Next up is a palette I've already mentioned this week, it's my MAC Neutrals Quad. I am probably using my other MAC Quad more at the moment, but long term, this is my favourite. This has everything I need for a basic eye look and a smokey eye in one compact little palette. I do wish this came with a mirror though, and I find the packaging annoying because it always looks dusty from shadow fallout. If you want to know more about this quad, check out yesterday's post.

Alhambra, Bellissima, Kalahari, Galapagos, Coconut Grove & Night Clubbing

My NARS And God Created the Woman palette is probably my favourite palette ever. Bold claim I know. This palette has everything I need, a shimmery base/highlight, a matte taupe crease colour, a slightly darker shimmery base colour, the perfect golden shimmer chocolate brown, a dark matte brown, and a black brown shimmer. It's compact but with a big mirror, making it perfect for travel. And urghhhh I just love it. I am obsessed with NARs shadows anyway, but this is my favourite! I've done a full review here.

Bone, Stone, Frappe, Caramel, Champagne Truffle, Cocoa, Rich Chocolate

The Bobbi Brown Rich Chocolate Palette is a fairly recent addition to the collection. The thing I love about this is the number of matte shades, out of seven shades, only two are shimmery, making it a refreshing change from every other palette on the market. I go for this when I'm looking for something a little more subtle, but there's a shimmery option too. The shadows are super soft and highly pigmented (except for Caramel, which is the odd one out with chunky glitter and a medium pigmentation) and very well loved!

Kinky, Freestyle, Mushroom, Backdoor, Blackout, Barlust, Rockstar, Evidence, Loaded, Asphalt

And lastly, a bit of colour in the form of the Urban Decay Smoked Palette. I love the rich jewel toned shadows in this, but it also has neutral options too, making it a great travel option. Like I said, Urban Decay shadows are incredible and these are no exception. I love the zip up packaging, and that it comes with a liner and primer. 

So those are my top palette picks, have you used any of these? What are your favourite eyeshadow palettes? Are you a neutrals gal too?

Top Five Concealers

Concealer is my best friend. Insomniac and frequent pizza-muncher, I often have dark circles and blemishes to hide from the rest of the world, and I have a fully equipped arsenal to deal with that.

For the most part I do think you get what you pay for with concealers, I have tried a whole lotta high street concealers and for the most part, they really haven't done what I need them too. I should also address something that I'm sure a lot of people are going to hate me for. I do not like the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer. There, I said it. I think it's super cakey, and fake looking, plus the stuff oxidises like mad, and makes my skin look dark over blemishes. Not what I had in mind.

Anyway, onto the products I do like. First up, the Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer, the priciest of the bunch at £21, but my favourite. This is a thick, creamy formula that is high coverage but also slightly brightening. I use this on my undereyes mostly, but if I'm going somewhere special or I know I'm going to be photographed lots, I'll use this to cover blemishes and redness too, since it gives the most coverage whilst still looking really natural, since this blends into your skin seamlessly, whether you are wearing foundation or not. It's got a doe foot applicator which means it's super precise. I like to dot this under the eyes and blend with the Real Techniques Duo-Fibre Eye brush, or put a little on the end of my finger and pat it directly onto a blemish, and keep patting til it's all blended. 

Next up, Bourjois Healthy Mix Concealer, which I would say is pretty similar to the Nars offering, but a little thicker and not brightening. This is my daily go to for blemishes, and adding extra coverage to areas I know are prone to redness throughout the day. It's really high coverage and it lasts really well throughout the day. It's pretty pricey for drugstore, coming in at £7.99, but you only need the tiniest bit, so it lasts for ages.

Boi-ing is one I've had for a while now, I like to think of this as a concealer primer, if that makes sense? Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing concealer, but I actually like to pat this onto blemishes or redness before my foundation, so it gets rid of any redness prior too, since it can look a little heavy on top of foundation, mostly because I like quite a glowy base and this is pretty matte.When my under eye circles are really bad, I like to take this on my fingertips, warm it up, and pat it under my eyes, not too close to the lashline, before going in with a brightening concealer.

MAC Studio Finish is a very heavy duty concealer, with masses of coverage. A little of this on a detailer brush is your blemished skin's best friend. It is heavy, and it is thick, which is why I never use it under my eyes, but for spots it's great. Seriously good staying power and great coverage. Same price as a lipstick too, only £15 and you need the smallest amount.

Last but certainly not least is Rimmel Wake Me Up, the only concealer of the bunch I have repurchased so far. This is the cheapest of these five offerings, at a mere £5.49. This is the concealer I reach for to really brighten up my under eyes. It's coverage offering is not as good as the Nars concealer, but it really does brighten the area, and you can build it up quite a lot without it creasing. I rushed out to repurchase this before I even ran out, because I really didn't fancy being without it! 

Have you tried any of these concealers? What is your favourite concealer?

Top Five High End Blushes

Continuing with the Top Five series slowly but surely, today I thought I'd share with you my favourites from the pricier end of the blush spectrum. Blush is one section of my collection that isn't all that big, I know what I like and I stick with it, and generally I only wear these ones. You'll see that they are all fairly similar, nothing too wild!

 Sugarbomb has been my go to blush for about a year now, it's just so easy to wear and it goes with every makeup look. The colours swirl together to create a lightly shimmery deep coral, that leans towards the pink side of things. A little of this on the apples of the cheeks really brightens the complexion, and gives a super natural flush to the cheeks. The wear time is great as with all Benefit Blushes, and it smells amazing too. 

The most luxurious of my picks has to be the Chanel Creme Blush in Revelation. I've been banging on about this since I got it but I just love it that much. I'm not big on cream blushes, I generally find them fiddly to apply and the lasting power tends to lack, but this I just adore. The colour is my perfect blush colour, it gives me a true 'just been out in the cold' or 'awww don't make me blush' pop of colour. It's really easy to apply too, I just pat this onto the apples of my cheeks and blend with my Real Techniques Expert Face brush. With a good primer underneath, this lasts all day. 

I didn't want to include a limited edition blush in this but I couldn't help myself. This is MAC's Ripe for Love from the Temperature Rising Collection at the beginning of the year. It's similar to MAC Peaches, but a little darker, I tend to skip bronzer when I go for this. This is gorgeous with a bronzey smokey eye and a coral or nude lip. It's a dark peach with no shimmer, but it still adds a fair bit of dimension to the skin. Looks beautiful with Benefit Sunbeam over the top, or the Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in Radiant Light.

 Another Benefit blush, because I just love them, Hervana is more of a pinky, almost lilac blush, a bit more wintery than all these corals I seem to have included. Like I said, I love the formulation of Benefit blushes, they're really pigmented and last so well on the skin. I also have Coralista which I love (obviously, it's another coral).

Well I couldn't not include a Nars blush could I? Infact, I could have included every Nars blush, but I was restrained (ha!). I'm so glad that Orgasm was in this palette, since I lost my beloved Orgasm Blush a while back. This has been one of my favourites for a few years now, it's the perfect coral, with a hint of golden shimmer. Love love love.

Have you tried any of these blushes? What are your favourite high end blushes? Are there anymore Top Fives you'd like to see?

 

Top Five High Street Lip Products

 I did a post a few weeks back on my Top Five Mascaras, which got rather a good reception, so I took that as a nudge to continue the story. Lip products are a bit of a weakness of mine, so I couldn't narrow it down to just top five lip products across the board, so I split it into High Street and High End (which will come up next week).

This was quite hard to narrow down, since the majority of my most-reached for products are from the high street, and I normally have more than five floating around in the depths of each handbag, but I did a little recon, put everything back in it's rightful place, and picked out the five I reach for most. So without further ado, in no particular order, here are my Top Five High Street Lip Products.

Kate Moss for Rimmel London Matte Lipsticks: I've penned many an ode to this formula, I have the whole collection. My colour pick varies depending on my mood or the weather, more recently I've been reaching for 111 which is a slightly darker take on a traditional red lip (blame the grey skies). The formula is infallible, not as drying as most matte lippies (MAC I'm looking at you) and they stay put a good four hours before even feathering. I love these so much!

£5.49 from Boots

Maybelline ColorSensational Lipstick in Pink Punch: a recent addition to the Rockett Beauty Stash, that has barely left my lips since purchase. It's a bold pink that appears slightly darker on my lips, a perfect transitional colour for Autumn. Looks great patted into the lips as a stain, or slicked on for a bold splash of colour. Formulation is good, it's creamy so it doesn't last ages, but I like to seal colours this bright in with a slick of Lipcote anyway.

£7.19 from Superdrug

Bourjois Colour Boost in Red Sunrise: another fairly recent addition that made it's way into my stocks back at the end of July. I've always loved lip crayons, but this one is the holy mother. Pigmented, buildable, creamy, SPF, it's everything I've ever wanted, and the colour is just so damn wearable. Love this, but I do find the other colours in the range a bit off for my skin tone.

£7.99 from Superdrug

Maybelline Baby Lips in Cherry Me: My love affair with Baby Lips has been long standing, it was coined in a CVS in a back street of Santa Monica nearly two years ago, and it hasn't waned. My favourite from the range is Cherry Me, hydration, with a sheer dark pink wash of colour. I love that I can easily apply this without a mirror, when my lips are a little on the dry side, but I want a bit of colour. And so freaking affordable.

£2.99 from Superdrug

Rimmel Apocalips in Celestial: It's been a rocky road for me and the Rimmel Apocalips. I really don't like Big Bang, but Celestial and I have become quite good friends. I still don't like the applicator, but I do reach for this when I want an easy, no fuss, pinky nude lip, that will stay put basically until I eat.

£6.49 from Boots

What are your favourite High Street lip picks? What do you think of these products?