Beauty Buying Ban - Day 2 - Empties #1

I'm going to try and keep track of the products I manage to use up this month. I don't have a lot of 'almost finished' products at the moment as I finished up quite a few last month but today I used the last of these two:

L-R: BeneFit POREFessional, Revlon PhotoReady in 005 Natural Beige

Swatches (the last remaining drops of both products - it look me ages to get the PhotoReady out!)

BeneFit POREFessional - £23.50 for 22ml from any BeneFit Stockist

I've had this since before Christmas so I've tried it in cold weather and warm weather. I find in the warm weather, it doesn't do much for my pores and sometimes makes me even oilier in the areas where my pores are larger. In the winter time, this product works much better; I definitely noticed that my pores were looking smaller when I was wearing this. I think it's quite expensive at over £1 per ml and it's not something I'll be repurchasing anytime soon (because I've put myself on a flipping ban...!). I have mixed feelings about this primer; it's not amazing but it's not awful either. I'd suggest trying a sample before buying and only applying the teeniest bit to the parts of your face which have enlarged pores.

Revlon PhotoReady in 005 Natural Beige - £12.99  for 30ml from any Revlon Stockists

I have mixed feelings about this too. I've had it since January but I got it in a swap and it was about 90% full. I used it a lot initially before it started looking cakey on me when I applied it with a brush. It was also a touch too dark for me. I moved on to something else and this was left to flounder in my make up drawer. However in the last month I've been using it mixed with a little Estee Lauder Nutritious in Intensity 2.0. I actually love the combination! The Nutritious makes the PhotoReady a better colour match and stops it from looking cakey. I apply it with my fingers now too which helps. I don't notice a huge amount of sparkle so that's not a problem for me. I probably would repurchase this either in the lighter shade however, I might consider repurchasing this shade too to use on my legs (I'm not kidding, the teeniest bit makes them look so much better!).

So there we go! Do you love/hate either of these products?

Stace xx

Beauty Buying Ban! Day 1

I've decided to ban myself from buying any make up for myself for the month of August. I know that might not sound like a very long time but recently we moved next to a Superdrug so I've been popping in there far too much. Also, I've been addicted to blog sales and buying online which is rubbish because I think I'm not really spending anything because I'm not handing over my card and typing in my pin. 


I've tried Project 10 Pan so many times and always failed because I'm rubbish at finishing products under pressure! I might see if I can keep track of what I manage to use up over the month.


Today I've been going through my stash and picking out some more things to go up for swap (I'm hoping the fact I'll still be swapping will put me off buying anything) so there should be a post up soon about the things I've rediscovered. 


I've also put a lot of new things I've bought or swapped for recently into a separate bag and plan on trying out one or two of those items as I go along. It'll be like shopping...only in my bedroom. 


Wish me luck! I'll need it.

Have you ever done P10P or gone on a No Buy? Let me know how you did!

Stace xx

Haul & Swatches: NYX Order from Cherryculture.com

I placed an order on Cherryculture.com for some NYX sale items recently. I paid $41 (£25) in total, including postage which was around $14 (£8.50). It was worth the extra postage, though as everything worked out a lot cheaper than if I'd bought it from a UK stockist such as Cocktailcosmetics.co.uk. I've found the prices of NYX items in the UK have gone up by a lot as the companies selling them seem to have realised that they're pretty popular! I've done a price comparison for you in this post. 


Here's what I picked up!

Rouge Cream Blush in Glow & Orange

Glow

Orange

Cherryculture Price: $4.75 (£2.90) each

Cocktail Cosmetics Price: £7.95 each

Round Lipsticks in Rose & Peach Belini 

Cherryculture Price: $1.99 (£1.20) each

Cocktailcosmetics Price: £3.50 each

Round Lipgloss in Apricot, Cafe Latte & Peach

Cherryculture Price: $1.75 (£1.07) each

Cocktailcosmetics Price: £2.95 each

Mega Shine Lipgloss in Beige

Cherryculture Price: $3.75 (£2.28) 

Cocktailcosmetics Price: £4.95

Soft Matte Lip Cream in Amsterdam

Cherryculture Price: $4.50 (£2.75) 

Cocktailcosmetics Price: £4.95

The items were packaged very well and arrived within a week. Cherryculture also have a rewards system whereby you build up points which eventually become vouchers for money off. I'm quite a bit off getting a voucher but I still thought it was a nice touch! 

As you can probably see from the prices, buying from a UK site is definitely a lot more expensive. Here are the shipping prices and grand totals:

Cherryculture Shipping: $14 (£8.50) 

(this will vary depending on the size of your order and the delivery method you choose - I chose the cheapest)

Cocktailcosmetics Shipping: £3.25 for Royal Mail Recorded in the UK

(for Next Day delivery it's £6.45 and £7.50 for the rest of Europe)

Cherryculture Grand Total: £24.94

Cocktailcosmetics Grand Total: £44.90

I think if you're looking for some NYX products and you're not in the US, try ordering from Cherryculture.com. It's best to wait until you can do one big order or maybe order together with a friend to make the higher postage worth it. Also, watch out for their sales.

I hope this was useful!

Stace xx

Products I Regret Buying: Foundations & Concealers

I don't own most of these anymore as I've either swapped them away or given them to a friend so I don't have actual photos but here's a list of the foundations and concealers I regret buying! It's not that these are all awful products, they just didn't work for me.

Revlon ColorStay: I bought this for oily/combination skin and in the shade 330 Natural Tan. The shade ended up being too dark for me; damn those bright lights in Boots! I decided to give it a go anyway as it was only a couple of shades too dark and I wanted to see if I liked it, in which case I'd have purchased a lighter shade. However, I hated the way this applied - it looked horribly patchy even when I blended it furiously. It oxidized which didn't help the fact it was already too dark for me and it didn't really last particularly long on my slightly oily T-zone. I don't understand why so many people love this! I guess I should have known I wouldn't like it as I do prefer a light feeling foundation. To the graveyard of foundations it goes!

Bourjois Healthy Mix: This one breaks my heart. I've bought two of these now - one in 56 which ended up being too dark and one in 55. I used 56 a few times and found that I did get spots although I loved the foundation so much that I put it down to the fact I was trying out a new cleansing system and primer too. I bought 55 a few weeks ago and used it around 7/8 times. Everything was going great until...BOOM!...spots...everywhere! I rarely breakout anywhere other than my chin (hormonal, apparently!) but I had spots on my forehead, cheeks and even on my earlobe! It was nasty. I'm so annoyed because this time I know for sure it was the foundation. I really like it, my only regret is that my skin does not!

E.L.F. Studio Tinted Moisturiser: I bought this on a whim when I made an E.L.F. order almost weekly due to their free shipping and other offers (add them on Facebook here to make the most of these yourself!). I got it in Almond and tried it once on the back of my hand. It was the wrong colour although that didn't matter much because it seemed to just blend away into nothing. Now, I know tinted moisturisers are by nature extremely sheer but this was beyond that - it was non-existant. This isn't a huge regret as it was only £3.50 but I don't use it so it was still a waste of £3.50.

MAC Select: This was the first product I ever bought from MAC when I was about 16. I thought I was the coolest...we didn't have a MAC counter where I lived so I used to get it when I went to visit friends in Belfast. I used this religiously but looking back it was pretty awful! It used to oxidize lots on me and it would sink into my pores; making them really obvious. I would never buy this again. I stopped using it when I was 18.

Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse: I'm pretty sure almost everyone has tried this foundation at some point! At the tender age of 14, this foundation (in a shade about 5 shades too light for me) was a staple of mine. It really has to be the most horrible thing I've ever put on my face. I'd slather it on in the mornings and again at the end of the school day (for the bus journey home!). It was so cakey and unflattering.

BeneFit Boi-ing: I used this along with my MAC Select foundation for during my last few years of school. I liked it because it did a great job of covering my blemishes and lasting all day but it was so cakey on me. Perhaps if I'd had a MAC 224 at the time, I could have blended it better but even so I think this concealer would only work if you have really oily skin.

MAC Pro Longwear Concealer: Aside from the issues with the packaging resulting in a lot of product being wasted (the pump gives out far too much) and the fact this product ruined every brush I tried to use it with, it wasn't worth the effort. I found this to be cakey too, not as much as Boi-ing, though. It oxidized on my skin so any areas I'd concealed looked even more obvious! It did last well on my skin but that's the only thing it had going for it with me.

So there you go! I hope this was useful. If you like any of these and have tips on how to use them, let me know!

Stace xx

Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua - Please Be Amazing!

It's my birthday on Friday and I was planning on treating myself to something nice with money from my grandparents. As you will see in an upcoming post, I've been having trouble with foundations at the moment. I'd been thinking about trying Chanel's Vitalumiere Aqua since Fleur De Force raved about it months ago when it first came out. I was wandering around Debenhams swatching things when I decided to just bite the bullet and buy it. 


The girl at the Chanel counter was lovely and tested both B30 and B40 on me. We decided that B40 was the best match at the moment and I thought it was a safer bet since I tan very quickly in the sun so didn't want to end up with something which would become too light too quickly. If I find that B40 is too dark in winter, I may go back and get B30. She also advised me that this foundation is best applied with fingers which I'm pleased about as I've gone back to using my fingers over a brush as I found with a brush I was using far too much product.

This was £31 in Debenhams but I had £10 worth of points on my Beauty Club card so I only paid £21. The full price was putting me off a bit so I was glad that I paid a bit less but if I love it, I won't mind buying it again at full price. 

The bottle looks really small but it does contain 30ml of product which is the standard size of most foundations. I guess it will be handy for when I travel (which isn't often!) and I like that it's plastic so my cat won't be able to smash it when he inevitably throws it off the bed (he likes 'helping' me with my make up in the mornings).

Wish me luck! If this one doesn't work for me I think I might scream!

Have you tried this foundation? What do you think of it?

Stace xx