Raves

REVIEW: Rimmel Exaggerate Waterproof Eyeliner Black, £4

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Picked this up last minute in an airport. What a great find. The highly pigmented formula applied really easily and smudged well and stayed put relatively well. For oriental eyes, this is no mean feat where there pigment often creases up and collects in the corner. The waterproof formula makes it perfect for humid climates and beach-based holidays. The automatic pencil comes with a little smudger on the end although we didn’t use this.

Due to the easy application and soft ‘lead’, the eyeliner won’t last that long. But the pricepoint is fair. You also can’t get as fine a line as with a hard formula pencil or ink. Perfect for smokey eyes.

We now use this daily. An excellent waterproof eyeliner that works hard for its money.

Pros:  High performance eyeliner, smudgeable, waterproof, true black, good price
Cons:  Wasteful due to soft formula (have to throw plastic barrels away)

SCORE: 4.5 out of 5

We bought this without our hard-earnt pennies

REVIEW: Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Gel foundation 30ml, £10.99

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We found this foundation when we trialled Chantecaille’s Future Skin gel foundation, but the price made us want to cry. We started looking for other oil-free gel formulas and the one that everyone was raving about was Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum. It’s almost a dupe for the Future Skin.

It was hard to work out which shade we were as there were never the right testers in store, but we’re glad we persisted. This has become our drugstore foundation of choice. It basically does everything you’d want a foundation to do – provides good medium coverage that lasts well. It didn’t produce a ‘luminous’ or ‘dewy’ finish and can’t say we noticed the ‘anti-fatigue’ claims but it did look natural and didn’t separate or go patchy as foundations often can with combination skin.

Best of all, whilst it’s not weightless (but it is fairly lightweight), it feels pretty good and lasts relatively well even in the T-Zone on combination skin (would need a touch up during a full day). Best of all, Bourjois cater relatively well for yellow-toned shades.

This went straight in as our Holy Grail drugstore foundation.

PROS: Inexpensive, breathable, lightweight, well suited to combination skin

CONS: No added radiance

4.5 out of 5

REVIEW: Laura Mercier Primer 50ml, £29

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Basically the best primer we have yet tried!

It’s weightless, transparent, you can’t feel it on your skin and it helps your makeup perform better and ‘stick’ to your skin. Because it’s weightless, we particularly recommend this for combination skin as it doesn’t aggravate it or ‘sit’ on the skin like some primers can.

It doesn’t have any pore filling or blurring properties, it just helps your makeup last longer. Combine it with fixing spray and your makeup’s not going anywhere!

It’s our HG primer but because of the price, we keep this one for more special occasions or when we need our makeup to last particularly long.

Remember though, that for a primer to work well, your skincare regime needs to already be sorted.

PROS: Does everything a primer should and does it well

CONS: Pricey, but a little goes a long way

5 out of 5

REVIEW: NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow 4g, £25

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This is just one of those products that we didn’t realise we needed until we tried it!

The shades are hard working, flattering and versatile – a pearly mid heather and a buttery, metallic mauve. The shades work really well on oriental skin for a made-up but natural appearance, that also works up really well with a black or grey for a super stylish smokey-eye

 

Highly-pigmented, these wear well especially when applied wet and basically do everthing you would want an eyeshadow to do.  This has become our go-to eyeshadow in combination with a matte black.

It has gone straight into our hall of fame.

PROS: Looks super stylish, wears well

CONS: A little pricey, packaging picks up finger prints and marks really easily.

4.5 out of 5

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Raves: M&S Beauty

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M&S have languished for some years, trying to deliver what it is known for – high quality British goods whilst competing in a market at an ever lower pricepoint.

The food hall has long stood head and shoulders above the rest of its offering and now the beauty department is coming into line.

It was Stila that took me to M&S…it’s only otherwise available here in SpaceNK. The brands available were much better than I thought would be there…Ren, Skyn, Nuxe, Glamglow, Rituals etc alongside M&S ‘own’ premium brands – of which some products are great as well as a couple of high street brands like Bourjois (which I personally think are out of place). The ‘Advanced Formula’ Beauty Balm was the star of some products that I was given to review a while back.

Everything has testers and no annoying shop attendants following you round. It’s a really great opportunity to really get pitched in and test the products – a serious rival to the internet shopping experience.

Good work M & S, we look forward to even bigger and better things in time to come.

Thumbs up!