The Travelling Base/Face Products

I recently did a post on the five lipsticks I took with me while I was away in Lincoln, which you can read here, and today's post is going to be on the products I took with me for my base makeup including foundations, concealer, powders, blushers, contour and highlighters. I was originally going to include eye and eyebrow products as well but realised the post would quite possibly be longer than the River Nile (Geography Goddess in the building) and so the final post on these items will be up later in the week.

Having to pack lightly made me realise which products I truly love enough to take on a journey with and accompany me, think of them as my children but in cosmetic form. Or don't. Admittedly that would be kind of hard to imagine.

FOUNDATIONS AND CONCEALER

Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation, 100 Ivory- £6.99

For day time wear I prefer a light/medium coverage and this foundation is exactly that while giving a really healthy, dewy finish to the skin. I mentioned this foundation in more detail here (forgive me for my lack of detail, I WAS YOUNG AND UNAWARE).

Revlon Colorstay Foundation, 150 Buff- £12.49

For nights out I prefer a heavier coverage foundation as I find my base has to look more perfect if I'm wearing more makeup so it all comes together better. A dewy finish to the skin would just translate into 'greasy mess' on camera and so that's why I brought two foundations with me. I did a post on this foundation in more detail here.

Maybelline Better Skin Concealer, 02 Light- £5.99

This was the only concealer I took with me and it was a bit of a risk considering I'd only owned it for a few days beforehand but that is how much I felt I loved it. This was perfect and so good for covering my dark circles but I did wish I had taken along a Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer with me to cover up spots as my skin decided to be really nice and give me some hideous ones, thanks life. I did a post on this concealer in more detail here.

POWDERS

Collection Sheer Loose Powder, Translucent- £2.99

This is the only face powder I own as my other Rimmel ones broke (so traumatising) a few months ago and I decided to use this powder up completely before buying any other face powders so I didn't have any choice which to take. This does the job at setting my makeup and mattifies the skin but is so bulky and makes it such a pain to shove in your bag, also it makes such a mess, or maybe I'm just disastrous when it comes to loose powders.

Soap and Glory Kick Ass Concealer Setting Powder, Light- £10.00

Honestly you're probably thinking 'what on earth is that monstrosity on the right?' and I won't blame you; basically I bought the Kick Ass concealer quite some time ago but the screw fell out that held the little compartments together and for the longest time I left the product sitting there on my windowsill, not getting any use out of it, until I decided to have a go using the powder to see if it would stop my concealer creasing. After using it I was so impressed with the lack of creasing under my eyes and have been using it ever since, I'm aware I'm probably violating hygiene rules (I did consider wrapping cling film round it haha) but I'm not sure what else to use as an under eye setting powder?! Any suggestions are welcomed with open arms unless you're afraid of personal contact with a stranger.

BLUSHERS

Sleek Blush By 3, Lace- £9.99

It only made sense to me to bring along this palette, not only for the three completely different shades but also the massive mirror which, by the way, turned out to be so useful, yes I was one of  those annoying girls who was doing their makeup on the train half-asleep. I mentioned in a post previously how I don't seem to get much use out of this palette (here) but really wanted to make an effort to use it more and now I seem to wear the colours a lot which I'm really pleased about as the pigmentation is insane.

Seventeen Blush, First Flush- £3.49

As the Lace palette doesn't contain a matte pink shade I brought along this blusher as it's also highly pigmented and is such a lovely colour; I've owned this blusher for quite a while now and am planning on doing an individual review on it as I never hear much about Seventeen blushers.

CONTOUR AND HIGHLIGHT

Sleek Contour Kit, Light- £6.49

Does seeing the pan in the bronzer bring joy to your heart? No? Just me then. For a contour product this is the only powder that came to mind as other bronzers I have I feel lean too orange to work as a contour. The fact this palette comes with the loveliest highlighter as well made life so much easier, as a huge highlighter fan I really didn't know which to take with me so just brought this duo to save space.

George at Asda Under Eye Concealer, Light- £4.50

This product is a highlighter/concealer hybrid but I personally use it for highlighting as the pinkish tone doesn't work well with my skin tone to conceal but love blending it on my brow bone and into the inner corners of my eyes as it instantly brightens my face. I did a post on this concealer in more detail here.

So that's everything I took for my base and face products, to be honest I really don't think I brought that much with me considering my huge makeup collection haha! Also sorry for the seemingly endless linking back to other posts I've done, I thought it'd be easier to click the link if you wanted to read it rather than looking around on my blog, it's not a shameless plug.

Would you take any of these items away with you? What are your makeup travel essentials?

Unused Products: Sleek and Revlon

I have a heck load of makeup in my collection that I have used several times but then put in a drawer and forgotten about, however, today is a new day and I want to get more use out of such items.

From left to right: Crochet, Guipure, Chantilly

Check that mark on the far right where my nail went into it (holds back tears)

From left to right: Crochet, Guipure, Chantilly

First up is the Sleek Blush By 3 Lace Palette which retails for £9.99 here. This is one of those products that literally everyone raves about and, as always, I was drawn in and thought I couldn't live without it, BUT, I have hardly got any use out of this product. The only blusher I use is Crochet, the far left orange shade, and haven't once tried Chantilly, the far right coral pink shade, and only tested out the middle shade, Guipure once. I've been trying to reach for this palette more as they are so pigmented and are really good quality from what I have read and heard. Also Zoella loves it so isn't that enough reason?!

From left to right: Lip Butter in Wild Watermelon, PhotoReady foundation in Shell

Next are two items from Revlon (sorry Revlon), a lip butter and a foundation. Again, I bought a Colourburst  Lip Butter due to the amount of popularity they received and chose the shade Wild Watermelon, available here, as it seemed more pigmented than the rest of the shades. However, I bought it a good few months ago and I honestly haven't worn this out of the house entirely because I like wearing really bright and obvious lip colours so this is just too sheer for me. I really want to wear it out though as I think it'll vary up my look (ha) a bit if I'm wearing a more subtle colour. At £7.99 I find the lip butters to be quite pricey and it kills me inside that such money has gone to waste! I should have worn this throughout the summer but now I'm going to have to be all weird and opposite to everyone and wear it in the Autumn/Winter... not that anyone is going to analyse my lips for traces of a lip butter.

Next is the PhotoReady foundation which I bought on a complete whim without having read any reviews. It was quite a pricey whim at £12.99 but I think I had been feeling bored/sad about something (maybe when they ran out of chicken at McDonald's. Joke) so wanted to cheer myself up. It did cheer me up for the initial 5 seconds it took to rip open the packaging and wear it on my face for the first time but, then after a few more wears I realised I didn't like the shimmer it had in it and cast it to the side. Recently I tried this foundation again and used a very small amount and really liked the natural look it gave but also it seemed to cover up my bad skin that I've been having and so I have been using it more and am quite enjoying it. I bought this in the shade Shell and it is a really good colour match as well which is half the battle won. I looked on Superdrug's website and the PhotoReady foundation is currently on offer here for £9.99 which I think is still expensive for a highstreet brand foundation but you know, we must continue living life.

I have far more makeup that I should try and wear more but these are just some of the items that I honestly want to get use out of! Are there any products that you own but rarely use? Also, if anyone wants to know about any of these products in more detail I'll make it my sole aim to use them regularly so I can review them properly for you!

Poundland Beauty Buys: Revlon and Stila

Firstly I picked up three Revlon Nail Enamels; I only own one other Revlon nail varnish which is 260 Girly that I bought when on offer in Superdrug for £4.49 (forever a sale seeker) instead of the usual  £6.49. I love the colours Revlon offer but I don't usually bother buying expensive nail varnishes because I honestly think it's impossible for it to not chip off throughout the day so stick to ones that are around £4 or less.  I really like the shape of these bottles (it seems wrong calling them bottles haha) and the long lid makes it easy to hold. There were a few more different colours available such as a red and an orange which I very nearly bought as well but then realised I really don't need any more nail varnishes...but I still bought three anyway.

From left to right: 340 Stunning, 85 Minted and 281 Classy

Stunning is stunning (hawhaw), no I'm joking but it is a really nice glitter varnish to layer over any other colour, it has different sizes of glitter pieces and the larger ones are holographic which provides me with minutes of amusement when it catches the light, usually when I'm stood at the fitting room at work.

Minted is a pastel mint (why does Revlon make it so hard to describe a colour without using the actual name?!) and I was really excited when I found this because it looks so summery.

Lastly is Classy which I thought would be a very light, pale pink but it actually comes out with an orangey tint which isn't what I expected but I still like it. In the above picture I used two coats of varnish for Stunning and Minted but three for Classy because it came out quite streaky and the streaks were still obvious after two coats.

I've worn all three varnishes and I would say their duration is around two to four days depending on whether you peel and pick at it like I do or not.

The next item I bought was a Stila Tinted Moisturiser, when I saw this I was so excited because I've never tried any Stila products but have heard it's a good brand. The idea of a tinted moisturiser really appealed to me because it's been so hot recently and especially because it's by a higher end brand. The colour is in Light 3 which I think is a bit too orange for me but it was the only one I could find so I thought I'd buy it and try and make it work somehow.

I've tried this twice and I find it personally isn't beneficial for me because, even though I don't use high coverage foundations, I do like to use foundation to even out my skin tone but I feel like this product just doesn't provide enough coverage for me. This isn't any fault of the product because it's intended to be light and sheer as it says. I tried it first by itself without a moisturiser before hand and felt it just didn't moisturise my face and I found it really hard to spread because it's quite thick, however, the actual blending is fine it's just a case of using quite a lot of product. The second time I used it after my usual face moisturiser had sunk in and it did seem to work better where it didn't have to act as a primary moisturiser.

I think it would be really good to use for a holiday if you wanted to keep your base to a minimum and get sun protection as well and, because it's slightly too dark for me, it would match a lot better if using it with a tan. It'd also be good for younger girls starting to wear makeup because it's so minimal and leaves your skin looking and feeling like skin. I looked online to see how much this product would usually be and I found prices of around £20 but also saw it on eBay for £1.99.

You can sort of see a yellowish tint on my arm in the above picture where I used the product which looks worse than it does on my face because my face has more colour than the inside of my arm but I do wish I found a closer matching colour. I'm going to give the tinted moisturiser another go when my skin is having a good day and see what I think again because I really want to like the product and be like 'yes I use Stila...which I got FOR A POUND.', but, for now, those words shall not be uttered.