Make Up Confidential

I thought it would be a good idea to share my beauty wish list, and if any of you have tried some of the products you could share your opinions on them. This way hopefully I can narrow it down and save my bank balance! So, these are my most wanted products of the moment, I haven't tried any before.

1. Diorskin Poudre Shimmer all over face powder
2. Mac Powder Blush
3. Burberry Beauty Lip Cover
4. Mac Studio Finish Concealer
5. Chanel Powder Blush
6. Dior Addict Lip Glow
7. Chanel Soleil Tan de Chanel
8.Tom Ford Lip Colour 
9. Nars Blush
10. Chanel Natural finish Loose Powder


 This comes to a rather astonishing total of £256.50! What would be your must have products out of these 10? Or any you'd avoid?


Thanks for reading
 

....vintage Estée Lauder make up catalogue. Whilst my boyfriend was tidying up at his home a few weeks ago he told me he came across an Estée Lauder catalogue from 1987! I was amazed and wanted to see it straight away, an excitement he certainly didn't share. I was intrigued to see how much the style make up had changed in the last 24 years. The thing that struck me immediately was in fact the opposite, to me it doesn't seem to have changed a great deal and could easily be mistaken for less that 10 years old. I've included a scanned version of the catalogue below.


 Let me know what you think? Do you think the brand/packaging/style of make up has changed a lot? 




       
If only the prices were still the same.....

So it's my first ever 'Ins & Outs' post, I'm going to try and do them every month as I love reading these posts. I hope everyone had a good June :)

Ins

1. TRESemme Instant Refresh Dry Shampoo - This really is better than Batiste to me, it smells better and it's less 'powdery'. I don't really use it for its purpose as I wash my hair every day anyway, but it's great to add a bit of volume or to refresh at the end of the day.

2. Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream - I've loved this product for years but this month I've been using it nearly everyday for a lip balm and it's great. I tend to put it on at night and my lips are really soft the next day.

3. Avon Mattifying Mineral Face Cream SPF 30 -  I was attracted to this product as it said 'mattifying' and I have very oily skin, especially in the summer. I've been using it everyday on top of my moistuiser, it sinks in really quickly and I haven't noticed my skin becoming any oilier or my foundation lasting any less cause of a build up of product.

4. Leighton Denny Crystal Nail File - I really love this! It's without doubt the best nail file I've tried., and I've tried a lot. It makes filing your nails so quick and easy and has a lifetime guarantee!

5. Nubar 2010 - This nail varnish is amazing, it's really hard to describe. I think I'm going to do a blog post about it with photos. It's a top coat and when applied sort of looks like gold flecks that change colour in the light.

6. ELF powder brush - I've only had this for about a week so maybe it shouldn't be in here but I've loved using it. I use it to apply my foundation and then power. It's such a great brush for full coverage. It's really soft and dense and best of all it only cost £3.50.

7. ELF Luscious Liquid Lipstick (Baby Lips) - Again I've only had this for a week but it's also great. It's a really nice colour, not sticky at all and has a peppermint flavour. The applicator makes it really easy to apply too. I wish I'd got more!

Outs

Only a few things this month and they're all hair products!

1. John Frieda Go Blonder Lightening Spray - So this was a bit of a disaster product, I think. I can't say for sure. I had been using this for about a week on my roots, as they needed dying. It worked really well, they were definitely lighter. However when I then dyed my hair, the same way as I have done for well over a year now, my roots turned a gingery/brassy blonde. This product is the only reason that I can think of that caused this. Maybe you're not supposed to use it before dying? Has anyone else experienced this? I pretty much have a full bottle left now and I'm not sure if I want to use it again!

2. Umberto Giannini Backcomb In A Bottle - I was really hoping a lot of this product, but it was disappointing. To me it's just like spraying hairspray on your roots. It leaves them felling sticky and hard, and the volume doesn't last more then 5 minutes for me. Maybe I'm using wrong, I'm not sure. I followed the instructions but it just doesn't work for me.

3. Dark and Lovely Ultra Cholesterol Mask - This may seem and odd product for me to buy as I have blonde hair but I had seen SWalkrmakeup recommend it (I think) and my friend told me it should work brilliantly on my hair. It really doesn't. It doesn't feel like a mask at all and leaves my hair feeling quite dry and course. The consistency of the product is really thick and creamy so I thought it would be great but as soon I washed it off I could already feel my hair wasn't as soft as normal. Then on drying it it seemed dryer and in worse condition than when just using a normal conditioner.

So that was June! It was an exciting month for me as I started blogging! I'm so glad I did and I can't believe I have 26 followers now! I thought I'd be writing to myself for a while. Thanks to everyone for following and reading, it means a lot.

Sorry for the lack of posts this week I've been at home and the internet is shockingly slow and hasn't been letting me upload photos! Anyway these a few bits I picked up in London last week, I got some great deals in the sale so I thought I'd share.

Excuse the bad photos here, I'm still learning!

The deal of the day was the Laura Mercier set in the Selfridges sale. It contains one full size tinted moisturiser, one smaller and a foundation primer. All for £21! I also picked up a few Bourjois items as they were 3 for 2 in Superdrug (more photos below). With my £5 Body Shop voucher from In Style magazine I got a mini satsuma body butter, I thought it would be great to take on holiday. The toothpaste is a bit of a boring one to include, but it apparently whitens teeth by one shade in one week. I was a bit skeptical when I saw the ad for this, but it was half price so I thought it was worth a shot. I've been using it for over a week now and can't say I've noticed a difference really, but who knows what constitutes 'one shade' of whiteness? Has anyone else tried it out and noticed a difference? The last items were some body scrubs from the Boots Extracts range.

So the Bourjois items...


I hadn't noticed this product before or seen any reviews of it. It's a highlighter product, and I'm still not sure on this. When you swatch it with your finger you get a nice pink toned highlight but if you apply it with a brush it just translates on to the skin as glitter, not a great look! Has anyone tried this?



This product is far more talked about. I bought it as I'd heard numerous youtubers talking about it as a 'matte' bronzer. I saw it in the store and picked it up without looking at it really. This turned out to be a bad idea. It is certainly not what I would call matte, it quite clearly has glitter in it as you can see in the photo. It also says on the packaging, really should have read that! Does anyone know if there is another shade of this that is matte? I'm pretty sure I've heard many people calling it a matte bronzer, so I was pretty disappointed when I got home and tried it.


These scrubs are a great product, that I'd urge anyone to try. They're reasonably priced (£7.99) for the size, and are the best scrub I've tried. They're really thick and 'proper' sugar scrubs, not watery at all. they leave your skin feeling smooth and moisturised, smell delicious and last ages.


Just a closer look at the Laura Mercier set. I've only used it a couple of times and I'm liking it so far. It has great coverage for a tinted moisturiser yet still feels light.


This was another great deal. £10.50 in the Debenhams sale online, I'd never tried a Guerlain lipstick before this as the price always out me off. For more details on this lipstick visit this post.

Thanks for reading, that seemed pretty long for a haul, hope you weren't bored. I'm going to get back to blogging more frequently now that I'm back in London with fast internet!. Hope you're all well :)

I saw this post on Kim's blog and thought I'd do it too, even though I dread to think how much it will amount to. It's a great idea to see how much you actually spend on makeup and to see how many products you actually use on a daily basis. So here goes...

1 - No7 lipstick in Nude Rebellion - £10
2 - Collection 2000 Big Fake Flase Lash Effect mascara -  £4.99
3 - L'oreal Superliner - £6.19
4 - Urban Decay Primer Potion - £12
5 - Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation - £9.99
6 - Bourjois Bronzing Powder - £6.99
7 - Benefit Georgia Blusher - £23.50
8 - Urban Decay Naked palette - £32
9 - Mac Cream Colour Base in Pearl - £13.50
10 - Avon Super Shock eyeliner - £3.50
11 - Lacura Concealer Pen - £3.50
12 - Models Prefer eyebrow pencil - One of my mum's friends gave this to me, I have no idea where it's from
13 - Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer - £4.19
14 - Maybelline Dream Matte powder - £7.19

Total - £137.54!!

It is quite shocking to actually see the figure! Although I do buy most things when they're on offer so I'd like to think it's a bit less (hopefully!), and some things were gifts. I do change products most days, so I dread to think the cost when I'm using a more expensive lipstick or mascara!

Thanks for reading, and check out Kim's post here. How much is your face worth? I'd love to see other peoples. Do you think this is excessive? Please leave your links in the comments so I can read them.

I was going to name this 'High End Lipstick Collection' but I'm not sure if four really constitutes a collection. Anyway I wanted to share some of my make up collection on here and it's easier to do it bit by bit and give a mini review too.

This i my collection so far, I didn't include Mac here as I don't really consider it high end, more of a middle ground between drugstore and these.




The first is YSL Rouge Volupte Perle in Coral Sun number 102. These lipsticks have very luxurious packaging as do most of YSL's products. The lipstick has a very silky texture and glides on the lips easily however this is also its downfall. As easy as it glides on it also glides off in no time, one drink and this is completely gone. I still love this lipstick as it feels great on the lips has a fruity sent and the colour is fantastic. I choose this as I had no other coral lipsticks. In real life it's a brighter more orange coral than is showing up in the photo. I purchase mine from House of Fraser.




This is Estee Lauder's Pure Colour lipstick in Wild Blossom. this lipstick also has great packaging but it does feel a lot lighter and more plastic than YSL's, but it quite a bit cheaper. I love the shade of this lipstick and the finish it gives. It's a very creamy consistency and is a perfect peach colour. It is also the most pigmented and long lasting out of the collection. Available here.




My third one is Chanel's Rouge Allure in Mythic number 69.  This is my favourite packaging of any lipstick, it's very chic and timeless. The colour is a nude, but not 'concealer lips' sort of nude. It has a slight hint of rose in the scent and goes on like satin. This is fairly long lasting and a colour you can put on with almost any look and without great precision. It is my favourite one and I'm definitely considering trying out other Chanel lipsticks. I purchased this at Selfridges.




The final one and my newest purchase is the Guerlain Kiss Kiss Strauss Lipstick. I bought this in the Debenhams sale online for only £10.50, which is still quite a lot but not compared to the usually price tag of £21. I have only had this for about 2 days so can't really give a review. The colour is very sheer, the photos above are after a few layers.However I do like the consistency, scent and finish. The packaging is again great but also feels a lot lighter than the YSL one and very plastic.


I also have two mini high end lipsticks which I got in an amazing advent calendar my boyfriend bought me last year from Selfridges. It had a mini luxurious sample behind each door, it was the perfect gift for beauty lovers.



The first is YSL Rouge Pure Shine, in shade 10 I think (it has worn off a bit). The second is Lancome's L'absolu Rouge in shade 06. They are both really cute sizes and perfect to take in a clutch back for a night out. The YSL is very similar to the Rouge Volupte Perle but with a shiner finish. The Lancome one has great pigmentation and a creamy texture similar to the Estee Lauder one.


 
On the left is the Lancome and right YSL. They are both great everyday shades.




I don't really know how useful these swatches are, but I really couldn't get a decent photo of them on the back of my hand. From top to bottom they are Estee Lauder, YSL, Chanel, Guerlain, mini YSL and finally mini Lancome.

Thanks so much for reading. Please give me your opinions on high end lipsticks, are they worth the splurge? And how many do you own?