Review - Rimmel Stay Matte Foundation

*Warning - this post contains images of Make Up Free Faces which some viewers may find offensive.

Rimmel Stay Matte Foundation - £5.99

For all the oily skinned girls out there, foundation shopping is a real pain as you know it will only last a couple of hours. Anything that claims to provide 'a matte finish' is a plus, but most of the time their a let down! Plus, we can't always rock the dewy finish without looking like an oil slick! But this season, skin is meant to have a 'velvet finish' not dewy but somewhere in the middle.

To get this finish, the air whipped gel like foundation is back, and Rimmel have reformulated and repackaged their Stay Matte Foundation as part of this trend. I've used the old formula Stay Matte for some time, I quite like it, not too cakey, good coverage and lasts most of the day at work, but the new Stay Matte is even better.

A thicker consistency then the old, you need less product for the same sort of finish. I didn't have high hopes for it, but actually ended up being plesently surprised. You only need a small amount, rubbed into the skin with fingers and then finished blending with a brush, this has fast become one of my favourite foundations.

Before - No Make-up

After - Foundation only, no concealer 

Coverage wise, this leaves quite a natural finish on the skin - the before pictue shows that I have quite a lot of redness on my cheeks and around my nose, however the foundation helps to even it all out and make it look less red. Its a medium coverage foundation that dries quickly, so work fast! 

In terms of how long it lasted, it was still there 12 hours later after a hectic work day, with no primer. I did find that my forehead was a tad shiney by about 3pm, but thats really good going considering it had lasted 8hrs by then. It hasn't messed with my skin, however it does cling to any dry patches and can settle into fine lines so a hefty does of moisturiser before hand would be good.

Over all, this magic foundation is a winner for me, the colour range is ok, more suitable to those of us with lighter skin tones, however if Rimmel can get their act together and get a wider range then they would be awesome! For £5.99, I can't fault this. I think I'm True Ivory, but I would recommend you going and swatching. This will be on my list for my Xmas face as there is no SPF so non of the dreaded flash back, just check moisturiser and primer!

What do you think? Have you tried this or other foundations from Rimmel? xx

Collections Cover & Go - Review

I love a good multi-tasking product, and Collection has produced a fab little concept in their Cover & Go foundation and concealer. Unfortunately for me, the fab concept is where the love stops

Cover & Go is a low coverage foundation which leaves quite a dewy finish on the skin. It's a nice foundation for quick application, but it can be a tad oily over the day without a setting powder.

Concealed in the lid is a little pot of concealer and a mirror to go with the foundation. It's quite a hard concealer, but applied with fingers or a brush, I find it gives ok coverage, without pulling at the skin. The mirrors a bit naff as you can't see in it very well but the ideas nice.

In terms of how well it lasts, I need to touch up quite a lot on my oily skin, but someone with drier skin might find this better suited. A big negative is that it does start to oxidise on my skin and if anything, it's made my skin oilier from using it - I've had some serious break outs so have stopped using it and they have cleared up!

There are only 6 colours in the range at the moment,I bought natural at first but it was too orange, whilst fair is a tad too pale - make sure you go and try them before if you fancy picking them up.

You can pick these up from Boots for £5.99, which is ok for a lower end foundation - I might try and mix mine with a moisturiser for in the summer.

Have you tried the Cover & Go yet? What do you think of the little mirror? Xx

Feel Unique Sale Picks

Afternoon lovelies.

When the e-mail popped into my inbox advertising the Feel Unique sale, I knew I had to head over and have a look. 

1) Philip Kingsley Elasticizer 150ml - RRP £26.25 - Sale £20.07. I remember reading Lily's review of this and then recieved a sample of this in a beauty box. I cannot believe how this has helped my hair - its so much healthier since I started using this so when I saw this in the Sale, I did make a cheeky order :) 

2)Daniel Sandler Watercolour Blush - RRP £14.50 - Sale £11.60.
I've seen the lovely ladies over on Pixiwoo use this product in quite a few videos, it always leaves a very subtle colour on the skin, without being overly shiny. I think the colour range is great and I did pick this up - will review it as soon as I can :)

3)Joico K-Pak Deep Penetrating Reconstructor - RRP £14.95 - Sale £12.71. My poor hair has been through the mill recently, and I'm planning on adding ombre colour to it at some point, but before that, I'm on a mission to get into really good condition. Joico is a brand that my hairdresser has used on my hair and I loved the results it left me with. 

4)FAB 5 in 1 Eye Cream - RRP £22.00 - Sale £17.60
I picked up a sample of this at my local Boots and instantly fell in love with it. This is something I loved so much that I have recommended it so many people and am now on my second tube, but a little goes a long way!

5)Jemma Kidd Light as Air Liquid Foundation - RRP £25.00 - Sale Price £20.00. I love this foundation, it bought my last tube back at Christmas and don't always use it as I find it to be one I save when I'm have a good skin day as the coverage is light to medium for my oily skin. I love the feel of this on my skin, and its great that it has SPF in it. 

All of these come with free delivery, I love that as I hate when you shop in a sale, think your making a good saving and then stung with a massive shipping cost - so not fair!

There are my picks, link me in the comments or let me know what your picks would be from the sales?!

xx

Benefit Hello Flawless Foundation

Afternoon lovelies, hope this week is treating you really well. Also it's Hump day!!! Closer to the weekend then the start of then week now :)


So I wanted to show you my current foundation love, but I hate that I want to write about something and there are suddenly 10 other posts, so I've held off on this for a while now. I've never been one for really expensive foundations, when my skins good I don't mind using a 'drugstore' foundation as its just a base for the rest of my foundation. But recently my skin is having a mid-life crisis, it can't decide if it's dry or oily, if it's clear or spotty, if it's angry red or a muted normal colour. This has been really stressing me out so I did some research for a nice matte foundation that wouldn't clog up my skin, but would cover and leave me looking normal.

My lovely mum bought me this foundation on a recent trip to London and we were in Harrods, sheltering from the rain. We wandered through and the only concession I knew we could afford would be Benefit and I wanted to look at this foundation. The lovely girl in Harrods colour matched me really well, we were there ages talking all things blogging and make up but I'm so glad I got this foundation as its lovely.

Hello Flawless is an oil free foundation that provides build-able light to medium coverage, great for good and bad skin days. It contains Vitamins C & E to help prevent signs of ageing. It also contains SPF 25+++, so a fantastic sunscreen as well.

It applies really well with both fingers and a brush, I use the Real Techniques stippling brush to apply this and then buff it is with the Buffing Brush. I find with the Porefessional it evens out my skin tone,covering the redness that is constantly in my skin, this is because I was colour matched to the slightly yellower foundation - definitely go and get colour matched.


It doesn't keep my skin oil free,but I'm a lot less oily by lunch time which is nice so I do touch ups then.


It's quite expensive at £24.50, but it's a product that's well worth it, and if you want to stretch it a bit further then mix it with something like You Rebel light tinted moisturiser or a BB cream for the same effect with less product. You can get this from Benefit, as well as feelunique.com




Have you tried this foundation yet? Xx

MAC Face and Body Foundation Review

Evening all, I hope this post finds you well, its nearly the weekend! I can't wait for the weekend to be here, only one more week of this half term!  


The worst thing ever to happen to anyone happened to me a couple of weeks ago...my much loved foundation ran out, 2 weeks before payday and it's was either shop the stash or face the world without and potentially scare off small children!


To the stash I turned, searching for something that would give me just a little bit of coverage. Sitting at the box was a bottle of MAC Face and Body Foundation, this could be my saviour!

Face and Body is an incredible light coverage product that leaves a fresh, dewy finish to the skin. If you have fairly good skin, and just want a light coverage then this is the product for you, if you want more coverage then you can mix it with a tinted moisturiser for a thicker formula.


The consistency of the foundation is quite runny. From the picture below you can see that it is very thin...

A little bit really goes a long way, the small amount above spreads out like this...

It looks really shiny and greasy, but if you apply it to clean skin or a primer and allow it to dry, then it gives a lovely dewy finish. You can either leave it like that, or set it with a finishing powder, such as Benefits Georgia (now discontinued :( ) or something from MAC.

You can apply it in lots of different ways, either with a stippling brush, a foundation brush or your fingers. I tend to use a my stippling brush to apply as you get more of an airbrushed finish where as a foundation brush tends to put too much product on my face and leave it a bit too shiny! 

It gives a good even coverage, even on my skin which is combination. The problem area's I found are my eyebrows, it makes them look stuck on! 

It lasts all day, and comes off easily. You get a whopping 120ml for £25.50, which works out at £2.12 per 10ml which is great compared to my other favourite Maybelline Superstay 24hr foundation which is £9.19 for just 30ml or £3.06 per 10ml!

So a great foundation that has a place in my collection, and I'm sure many others. If you want more information, have a look on Youtube, there are loads of videos! 

Thanks for reading! xx